NCVLI Hosts Free Webinar on Victim’s Rights During COVID

The National Crime Victim Law Institute (NCVLI) is hosting a free, two-day webinar featuring a series of panel discussions with leading victims’ rights advocates on June 18-19, 2020. The webinar will cover fighting for victims’ rights during COVID and facing future challenges to victims’ rights with unique panels on each day of the event.

The webinar will provide an opportunity to discuss strategies to ensure that victims’ rights and interests are factored in standing court and executive orders, and the many policies emerging during COVID. In addition, on a panel-by-panel basis presenters will address racism and the racial inequities of the system as these intersect with the overall conversation.

Panelists will be experts in victims’ rights and services from across the United States, including victims’ rights attorneys who are at the forefront protecting survivor voices in our justice systems as well as technology experts who have been fighting to bridge the digital divide. A complete list of panelists and their backgrounds will be available on the event page on Monday, June 15, 2020.

The event will show participants a wide variety of actions being taken by organizations and individuals all across the country to protect rights during a national crisis (in this case, a pandemic). “Our hope is that this event will spark ongoing conversation that leads to recommendations on how to effectively respond to the current pandemic and be more prepared as a victims’ rights enforcement community for future challenges,” stated the Executive Director of NCVLI, Meg Garvin.

NCVLI’s Crime Victim Law Conference, which was originally scheduled as an in-person event on these dates, was forced to move to the fall due to COVID-19. While the Conference was postponed, NCVLI knew that a national conversation needed to happen to address the concerns of and develop ideas for legal practitioners working with victims of crime in the unique environment of COVID-19. “Victims didn’t stop needing legal advocacy during the pandemic; in fact, they needed more inventive legal advocacy,” Garvin notes. “This conversation is designed to address topics long overdue when examining the meaningfulness of victims’ rights in ALL circumstances.”

Each panel will leave time for a Q&A session for audience members to engage with the panelists. For those who are unable to attend the event live, recordings of many of the sessions will be available after the event on NCVLI’s COVID-19 Resources for Legal Services and Victims’ Rights page.

Registration for the webinar can be done here. For further questions about the event, please contact ncvli@lclark.edu.