VICTIM EMPOWERMENT PROGRAMMES

What is Victim Empowerment? Victim empowerment is an approach to facilitating access to a range of services for all people who  have individually or collectively suffered harm, trauma and/or material loss through violence, crime,  natural disaster, human accident and/or through socio-economic conditions. 

It is the process of  promoting the resourcefulness of victims of crime and violence by providing opportunities to access  services available to them, as well as to use and build their own capacity and support networks and to  act on their own choices . 

Hence, empowerment may be defined as having (or taking) control, having  a say, being listened to, being recognized and respected as an individual and having the choices one  makes respected by others (moving from victim to survivor). 

 Victim empowerment aims to restore the loss or damage caused by criminal acts and their consequences  through a variety of actions intended to empower the victim to deal with the consequences of the  event, to leave it behind and suffer no further loss or damage.

 It is premised upon the belief that  individuals, families, and communities have the right to privacy, safety and human dignity, and that  victims should play a more central role in the criminal justice process. 

Victim support is the empathic, person-centred assistance rendered by an organization or individual  following an incident of victimisation. 

Through victim support aimed at victim empowerment, the  victim is restored to a state as close as possible to that existing prior to the offence and ideally to a state  where the person has been able to learn and grow.  

Victims do not all have the same degrees of need for empowerment and support - there is a diversity  of needs. In order to enable the disempowered victim to recover from the exposure to crime and  violence, such needs must be met through a well-managed, integrated, multidisciplinary team  approach. It is generally accepted that the empowerment of victims in a holistic manner reduces  secondary victimisation, encourages co-operation with the criminal justice process, reinforces socially  desired behaviour, and acts as a deterrent to offenders or potential offenders. 

Victim empowerment  thus has the potential to prevent and reduce crime and violence and to enhance the effectiveness of  the criminal justice system. 

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE VICTIM EMPOWERMENT POLICY 

These National Policy Guidelines are intended to achieve a society in which the rights and needs of  victims of crime and violence are acknowledged and effectively addressed within a restorative justice  framework. 

Thus the objectives borne from this vision are to: 

1. To give strategic direction on the development of management structures for effective coordination of the programme at all government levels; 
2.  To identify and clarify sector specific roles and responsibilities at all government levels of the  management structures; 
3. To  guide the process of monitoring, evaluation and reporting by the implementing structures; 
4.  To serve as a framework for the development of sector specific policies and strategies;
5. To identify roles and responsibilities of relevant government departments;
6. To create a common understanding of victim empowerment amongst various State  Departments, victims, perpetrators, non-profit organisations (NPOs), (including non-4 governmental organisations (NGOs) and community-based organisations (CBOs)), and  individual members of the community.