In whose service?' - The use and abuse of victims' rights in Ireland

• Author: Anthony Mcgrath
• Position: BCL (UCC, 2001); LLM. (TCD, 2003); PhD candidate, University College Cork, 2009
• Pages: 78-96

Judicial Studies Institute Journal [2009:1

78

“IN WHOSE SERVICE?” – THE USE AND ABUSE

OF VICTIMS’ RIGHTS IN IRELAND

ANTHONY MCGRATH*

Victims, previously the forgotten half of the criminal dyad,

have now become the ubiquitous theme of criminal justice

discourse in Ireland, thanks largely to the adroit and resolute

campaigning of victims themselves. The broad public appeal of

victims’ rights is easy to understand; for we are each aware of the

randomness of crime, that at any unfortunate moment any one of

us may find ourselves a victim. However, it is remarkable just

how swiftly the political majority have embraced this victims’

movement:

The reaction to what has been described as [the victims’

movement] has been overwhelmingly (and rather

surprisingly) non-controversial … and has not generated

any serious criticism, or any meaningful confrontation …

the quasi response to the rhetorical cry of “justice for

victims” has been favourable. For a legislative issue to

generate so little debate, so little opposition in the highly

confrontational, highly partisan world of politics,

is extremely unusual. The exceptional speed with which

[victims] were rediscovered and their cause adopted by

politicians, let alone the political climate that prevailed at

the time of their rediscovery, are bound to raise questions

about the real interests and motives.1

It would be a mistake to equate the frequency with which

the concerns of victims are cited within the political arena as a

benchmark for gauging just how far victims’ rights have come

within our criminal justice system. Any victim “rights” in Ireland

are emblematic, theoretical and titular rather than real and

enforceable; making it a country that talks about doing more than

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* BCL (UCC, 2001); LLM. (TCD, 2003); PhD candidate, University College

Cork, 2009.

1 Fattah, “The Need for a Critical Victimology”, in Fattah (ed.), Towards A

Critical Victimology (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 1992), pp. 3-4.

2009] Victims’ Rights 79

is actually being done. Current debate on victims in Irish political

and criminal discourse may portend a better future but its

grammar is, at present, propitiatory. The actual provision of rights

for victims is rhetoric not reality, with the gap between writ large.

For example, the most basic and common need referenced

by crime victims is the need for information, both in relation to

the progress of the investigation and the prosecution specifically,

and to the procedures and workings of the legal system generally.

While this is by far the easiest and most immediate victim

demand that could be met – and there is little, if any objection to

providing victims with relevant and appropriate information –

there exists no legislative right to information, and no statutory

body to oversee its dissemination. Instead, there exists a decade-

old Victims Charter2 that, despite appropriating a tone of rights,

does not confer any. This Charter represents little more than a

collection of aims that can simply be characterised as good

policy, promising victims the fine ideals of efficiency, civility and

fairness, but lacking enforceable remedies for non-compliance.

Indeed, it is, for the most part, wholly insufficient to the task,

emphasising that victims have no rights at all, only mere

courtesies and conveniences, to be extended or withheld at the

whim of criminal justice agencies.

In the clamour for votes that heralds any election season,

victims inarguably receive greater prominence than they do

throughout the broad political calendar. For example, the 2007

Election Manifestos of all political parties made promises directly

beneficial to the victims of crime. Fianna Fáil proposed the

establishment of both a Victim’s Council to formulate victim

policy and a statutory Victim Support Agency;3 the Progressive

Democrats made a commitment to double the funding currently

available for victim support work;4 Fine Gael5 and Labour6 both

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2 Victims Charter and Guide to the Criminal Justice System (Dublin:

Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, 1999), available at

http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/VictimsCharter.pdf/Files/VictimsCharter.pdf.

3 Now, The Next Steps – Fianna Fáil Election Manifesto 2007 (Fianna Fáil,

2007), p. 102.

4 From Good to Great: Continuing Ireland’s Radical Transformation –

General Election Manifesto 2007 (Progressive Democrats, 2007) p. 30,

available at http://www.progressivedemocrats.ie/uploads/images/Manifesto_

2007.pdf .