New campaign highlights rights and supports for victims of crime
A new awareness campaign highlighting the rights of victims of crime has been launched by the Department of Justice.
The campaign — which will run across TV, local and national radio, digital and social from today — directs people to the VictimsCharter.ie website which sets out victims’ rights in an easily accessible manner, and helps victims of crime to locate services and supports available.
Two adverts called ‘Diversity’ and ‘Translations’ form the centrepiece of the ‘Victims of Crime - Know your rights’ campaign, and were developed with marginalised, minority and harder-to-reach communities in mind.
Justice minister Simon Harris said: “We know that being a victim of crime can be traumatic, and victims can understandably struggle with knowing what to do next or what they are legally entitled to when engaging with our criminal justice system.
“It is so important to know that you have rights, you have a voice and that there are supports available to you. That is what this campaign is about — getting people to know their rights, getting victims to recognise VictimsCharter.ie as an important resource to which they can turn to for information and help when they need it most.
“And I’m delighted to see the inclusive focus in this campaign. We hope that everyone living in Ireland will see themselves reflected in these ads.
“We know some groups in our society can be harder to reach and unfortunately we also know that some marginalised communities can be fearful of reporting crimes. Issues of intersectionality have arisen strongly in our engagement with victims’ groups in recent years and this is something we will be working to address.
“Victims’ rights and supports are available to all, and everyone should be aware of them.”
The main assets were produced by the creative agency Javelin, working with the production company Piranha Bar.