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Restorative Justice Council open letter to Crispin Blunt proposing amendments to the EC Draft Directive on Victims

The RJC has proposed a series of amendments to the EC draft Directive on Victims. Our open letter to the Minister follows:

Dear Crispin Blunt MP

Whilst we welcome the EC Draft Directive on Victims, we believe the text in relation to restorative justice, providing only an entitlement to 'safeguards' for victims, is unduly and unhelpfully negative.

As you know, the evidence in this country shows that 88% of the public support the right of victims to meet offenders and tell them the real impact of their offending, and that 85% of victims who take part benefit from restorative justice. Given this, we believe the key emphasis of the Directive should be on the right of victims to access high quality, safe restorative justice processes, based on practice standards which include, but cannot be reduced to, an entitlement to safeguards.

The specific text amendments which we, with the support of both Victim Support and the European Forum for Restorative Justice, would like to propose, are attached. Given your strong personal support for restorative justice, we hope you will champion these amendments during negotiations on the Directive.

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15th Dec 2011

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