A workshop with local stakeholders was held at the office of MARTA Centre on February 24 to discuss the results of the comparative context analysis of the 5 participating countries as well as the recommendations developed, performing a SWOT analysis of the existing procedure for awarding compensations to victims of sexual violence.
It was attended by various relevant participants – representatives from NGOs that work in advocacy and service provision, representatives from both the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Latvia and the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Latvia, representative from the Legal Aid Administration of the Republic of Latvia and a representative from the Ombudsman’s office of the Republic of Latvia, as well as judges, lawyers and researchers.
It was concluded that the existing Latvian procedure for claiming and awarding compensations for victims of sexual violence already features numerous good practices, as it is easily accessible and there are multiple points during the case proceedings where the victims are reminded about their rights to a compensation. Furthermore, the employees of the legal system often go above and beyond the legal requirements, paying individualised attention to the cases involving sexual violence.
The main weaknesses and threats identified were connected to the relatively low sums of money available as state compensation and the variable access to the free legal services throughout the country. It was agreed that more in-depth studies regarding the issue of sexual violence and compensations for victims would be beneficial