A victim support organisation has criticised a Bill that establishes minimum rights, support and protection for victims of crime, saying it contains no provisions for what will happen when these rights are breached.

This concern was raised in a position paper issued by Victim Support Malta, on a Bill intended to incorporate a European directive in local legislation.

The organisation noted the Bill referred to the “available procedures for making complaints where the victim’s rights are not respected by the competent authority operating within the context of criminal proceedings”. However, no such procedures were in the Bill.

“It is indeed futile to establish rights if there is no accountability for the providers of such rights to abide by the word and spirit of the law,” the position paper says.

While it lauds this government initiative, it says certain aspects of the Bill are rather “vague”. It cites the repeated reference to a “competent authority” throughout the Bill, even though there is no description or proper definition of such an entity.

The paper also expresses reservations on the use of the term “injured party” as opposed to the term “victim”. The organisation suggests the removal of the term to avoid confusion as well as inconsistency in case somebody falls under one definition and not the other.

Another concern raised was that provisions on the protection of victims and their right to privacy as laid down in the European directive do not feature in the Bill: “These are essential provisions without which the transposition exercise cannot be said to be complete.”

Questions were also raised about the fact the Bill grants victims the right to receive information about their case but does not specify who would shoulder the responsibility of sending it.