The Victim Support Europe 2016 Annual Conference "Taking victim support to the next level: Connect & Commit" will take place on May 25 and 26 at the Muntgebouw in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

The 2016 Annual Conference will focus on two basic ideas: connect and commit. There is a pressing need for victim support organisations in Europe toconnectwith each other throughout Europe and with organizations in the criminal justice system, specialist organizations decision makers, in their countries and Europe-wide.

In a moment when the European Union faces the need to appropriately implement the Victims’ Directive this is even more important to foster this connection, in order to reach the minimum standards set and surpass them with the best protection level possible for victims of crime in mind.

For that same purpose, governments should commit themselves to facilitate the work of the victim support organisations in their country.

This conference is an opportunity to connect victim support practitioners, policy makers and academics.

Information and registration:
www.vse2016.eu

On December 9th was held the election of the new Governing Bodies of APAV for the four-year period 2016-2019. João Lázaro was reelected as President of the Board of APAV, leading a list that proposes: "to deepen capacity building and qualification of APAV for the demanding challenges of present and future times and the requirements of the new European framework of rights for crime victims, in order to do everything possible so that APAV strengthen its leading position in Victim Support in the Portuguese society”.

On November 10th João Lázaro was elected President of Victim Support Europe, an european organization that gathers victim support organizations from 26 countries. This act reflects the recognition of the work of APAV and its prominent role in promoting the rights of victims of crime, in Portugal and in Europe.

On the January 14th 2016, APAV promoted the Seminar IVOR - Services that work for victims. This event took place at Hotel Olissippo Marquês de Sá, in Lisboa, and gathered more than 150 participants, from ten different countries. This Policy Seminar was developed under “Project IVOR | implementing a victim-oriented reform of the criminal justice system of the european union” (co-financed by the Criminal Justice Programme of the European Union) that the Portuguese Association for Victim Support (APAV) promotes in partnership with the International Victimology Institute Tilburg (INTERVICT, the Netherlands), the University of Leuven (Belgium) and Victim Support Europe.

APAV has launched a new awareness campaign on domestic violence. The campaign was developed by the agency FCB Lisbon in the form of a catalog.

The catalog is called "Home" and seems, at first glance, a furniture album. But it is, in fact, a catalog to wake awareness against domestic violence.

The catalog includes true stories, translated into statistics of violence in a domestic environment in Portugal in 2014. Domestic violence is a cross problem that primarily affects women, but also men, children and elderly people.

"Our home reflects who we are."

Catalog HOME 2015 [PDF]