International victim rights and their underlying values

• In Event: Victim Rights, Victim Values

Abstract

Since the 1980s various international victim rights instruments have seen the light, impacting the position of victims in national criminal proceedings. These instruments are typically surrounded by much controversy, with critics claiming that the increased attention for victims erodes the rights of suspects, and enlarge the different levels of victim protection between countries, rather than work as a harmonizing factor, due to inter alia the various ‘worlds of compliance’ that states belong to and the distinction between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ law. Others conclude that – in the background – law enforcement and political motives, rather than the best interests of victims, play a decisive role in the extent to which certain victim rights are received by the (inter)national legal community. This paper explores the relationship between international victim rights and the underlying values, public sentiments, events and other factors that contributed to the creation, implementation and further development of these rights and the changed conceptualization of ‘victimhood’.

Author

• Suzan van der Aa, Maastricht University