Description
The results of recent public opinion polls suggest that many Polish citizens lack sufficient knowledge about the functioning of justice system and their rights at court or public prosecutor’s office. The objective of the project is to improve access to justice for victims of crime and witnesses in criminal proceedings. This will be achieved through providing victims of crime with psychological and legal support. Direct services will be complemented by trainings for professionals having regular contact with victims and trainings for employees of courts who provide information for witnesses. The Project Promoter will also conduct information and an educational campaign in the mass media to fill the awareness gap that was revealed in the public opinion polls. Finally the project will enable the creation of 20 new child-friendly hearing rooms. The Project will be implemented in partnership with the Norwegian Courts Administration. The partner will contribute by sharing their experience in supporting witnesses and providing trainings for Polish experts. Norwegian experts will also prepare materials useful in further trainings.
Summary of project results
This project contributed to the improvement of standards for interrogation of minor witnesses, in particular the interrogation of children. It helped also to increase knowledge of the courts clerks working in the customer service points. Many crime victims gained free assistance, both legal and psychological. Achieving the assumed objectives was possible due to the implementation of five substantive tasks: o selection of 16 entities, one in each voivodeship which task was to provide free psychological and legal advice to people harmed by a criminal. Throughout the project execution period the Centers provided in total 3839 legal and 2949 psychological consultations; o trainings for employees of court customer service points/offices. The selected trainers conducted 12 trainings – one in every court of appeal and one additional in the Gdansk court of appeal. In total 694 court employees participated in the training courses; o training for people professionally working with people harmed by a crime. The trainings were conducted within the areas of 12 courts of appeal and they were attended by 847 participants in total, including: 57 judges, 149 prosecutors, 208 Police officers, 180 employees of institutions dealing with the harmed people and 253 court probation officers; o creation in 16 regional courts of the so-called friendly interrogations rooms, i.e. places enabling conducting interrogations of mainly minor witnesses; o a nationwide information campaign concerning the rights granted to people harmed by a crime with indication on how to implement them. The campaign was carried out simultaneously in the press and on the Internet. The press part included the cycle of 12 sponsored articles published in nationwide newspaper and 4 sponsored articles in the nationwide biweekly. The Internet part of the campaign included production of 3 animations presenting the rights of people harmed by crime at different stages of criminal proceedings, possibility to apply for state compensation payable to the victims of some acts forbidden by law as well as the possibility of obtaining assistance from Assistance to crime victims and Post-penitentiary Aid Fund. The project has met the expected objectives – it provided comfortable conditions of hearing for the vulnerable witnesses, in particular for children, it improved standards of the customer service in courts, it disseminated knowledge among people professionally working with people harmed by crime on how to support crime victims.
Summary of bilateral results
The project Strengthening of position of people harmed by crime and support of witnesses in the criminal proceedings was a partner project being implemented in cooperation with the Norwegian Courts Administration. The Norwegian experts were engaged in the project development stage and helped the Project Promoter to prepare project application. Throughout the project’s implementation two study visits were organized – one in Warsaw and the second one in Oslo. Their objective was the exchange of experience in the field of activities for people harmed by crime and witnesses. Thanks to the visits both sides learned how works the system of care in each country and discuss about the best solutions for improving it. The study visit to Oslo contained a visit of the representatives from the Ministry of Justice in the Nobody’s Child Foundation in Oslo. The visit gave a broader understanding of the witness support program which is carried out by the Norwegian Red Cross in cooperation with the Norwegian Courts Administration. The Norwegian experiences and best practice in the field of witness support had a great impact on the preparation of the trainings conducted under the project. In 2015, the Beneficiary and the Project Partner representatives had an opportunity to meet twice in Norway. The first visit took place from 16 to 20 March 2015. During the visit the trainers selected for conducting trainings for employees of court customer service points/offices reviewed the witnesses’ support system in Norway. They visited the Regional Court in Oslo and the Regional Court in Nedre Romerike. The another study visit took place from 25 to 28 May 2015 in Trondheim. The meeting was devoted to a training for the beneficiaries in the field of project management and the exchanging of experience and best practice.