The Council of Europe has over the years produced a wealth of legal instruments and texts relating to victims (see under reference documents).

The work of the Council of Europe in the field of victims has more recently been carried out by two groups of specialists.

In 2007 the Group of specialist on remedies for crime victims (CJ-S-VICT) carried out further work following on from the Resolution on “Victims of Crime” adopted at the 27th Conference of the European Ministers of Justice in 2006. The group produced a final report on civil remedies for crime victims which will be published by the Council of Europe in 2009.   This report contains a list of recommendations and conclusions destined to be taken into consideration by member states. At this stage it was decided that a further legal instrument in the field was not necessary.

From 2005-2006 the Group of specialists on assistance to victims and the prevention of victiminisation (PC-S-AV) worked on Recommendation Rec (2006) 8 on assistance to crime victims which set out common standards in this area. This Recommendation is the most up-to-date legal instrument of the Council of Europe in this field.

This report will be of use in the forthcoming conference of Council of Europe Ministers of Justice, taking place in Tromsø, Norway in June 2009.