VICTIMS OF TERRORISM

Most victims of terrorism are innocent citizens who find themselves at the wrong place and at the wrong time, randomly targeted in brutal attacks. The lives of survivors, and those of their families, can be irrevocably changed. Many victims take years to recover physically from their injuries or come to terms with their losses. Without help, the trauma can be a lifelong sentence.

While States take terrorism very seriously as a security threat, they do not necessarily always ensure adequate support to victims and their families. Victims of terrorism and their families need focused and dedicated mechanisms to ensure that their rights as individuals are upheld and protected.

The UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy directly addresses the issue of victims of terrorism. It lists measures to confront the spread of terrorism, including how to counter the "dehumanisation of victims of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations". It also encourages the creation of national systems of assistance, which would "promote the needs of victims of terrorism and their families and facilitate the normalisation of their lives".

UNODC works together with Member States to strengthen the implementation of national legislation and policies that support and protect victims of terrorism. We do this in close partnership with governments, victims’ organizations and civil society groups.

Mandate

The role of the UNODC in building the capacity of requesting Member States with support for victims of terrorism has been reaffirmed by the UN General Assembly at its 73rd session.

Projects

Victims of terrorism have a central role to play in ensuring effective investigation and prosecution of terrorist cases. They contribute to collecting evidence, providing testimonies, identifying perpetrators and also countering extremist narratives.

Together with the Lebanese Association for Victims of Terrorism (AVT-L), we are working with partners in Iraq to guarantee victims’ rights during criminal proceedings. We promote the rehabilitation and empowerment of victims of terrorism within their communities through psychological support. AVT-L has more than 10 years of experience in providing support to victims of terrorism in the Middle East, with a particular focus on remote locations in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon.

Through this project, we support the criminal justice system to clearly define the role of victims of terrorism and of witnesses. This includes support and protection while preventing secondary victimization. The psychological support we provide to witnesses and victims of terrorism is also crucial to ensure their effective participation in criminal proceedings.

This psychological support serves to protect the rights and the role of victims of terrorism within the national criminal justice system through a victim-centred approach. We focus on key international requirements, in particular:

the coordination of all law enforcement and criminal justice agencies involved at all stages of victim’s interaction with the criminal justice system;
victims-sensitive approaches for dealing with victims;
procedures regulating victims’ status, participation and protection in court proceedings;
the timely and fair restitution, reparation and compensation of victims; and
the role of the media in raising awareness on the vulnerability of victims.

Our current activities build on a joint project on supporting victims of terrorism in Iraq following ISIL’s military defeat (2018).

Our work on supporting Victims of Terrorism

UNODC helps Iraqi victims of terrorism regain hope and their lives

2021-12-21

"As a result of the support I received, I enrolled in university to learn English and made new friends. After two years of introversion, a refusal to communicate with the outside world, and denying myself to live - today, I finally feel empowered, liberated and more optimistic,” says 26-year-old Nour (not her real name*). She is one of the 17 Yazidi victims of terrorism who attended a workshop organized by UNODC to help them recover psychologically and build resilience.

Adopting a Gender Perspective to Support Victims of Terrorism

2021-10-01

The UNODC Terrorism Prevention Branch interviewed Ms. Fatima Bello Raji, a female legal practitioner and humanitarian actor working in Yola, Adamawa State, to discuss the importance of adopting a gender perspective to support victims of terrorism. Read the interview here> .

To dissociate from trauma, victims of terrorism depict themselves as a faceless body – a new UNODC project helps in their recovery

At a workshop providing psychological support to victims of terrorism, Narin (not her real name) pictured herself as a body without a face. “I was abducted by ISIL at the age of 17 and was sold and raped by a dozen men”, she says. “To this day, I still do not know what the fate of my abducted mother is, I still don’t know if she is dead or alive”, she adds.To help victims like Narin through legal and psychological support, UNODC, together with the Lebanese Association for Victims of Terrorism (AVT-L) is implementing a new project funded by the Dutch government.

To find out about UNODC's work on supporting Victims of Terrorism in Nigeria and Iraq, please click on the links to webstories below:

UNODC Promotes Nigeria’s Victims Support Fund on this International Day of Remembrance of and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism

The Victims' Voices, Silencing Terrorism Campaign in Iraq:

Assistance Tools

From victims of terrorism to messengers for peace: a strategic approach is aimed at enhancing the capacity of governments and other stakeholders to increase support for victims of terrorism. The strategy draws on the work of the Victims’ Voices initiative, which allows victims of terrorism to share their experiences first-hand to help promote peace and delegitimize justifications for terrorist violence. Drawing on the results of victims’ direct engagements with over 8,000 youths across Indonesia, the Victims’ Voices initiative shows that victims’ stories are most impactful when shared directly by victims, in their own words.

Following the request of the General Assembly in its resolution 66/178 (2011), we developed Good Practices in Supporting Victims of Terrorism within the Criminal Justice Framework in 2015. This publication provides strategies to implement laws and to build institutional capacity to better include victims of terrorism into criminal justice investigations and prosecutions.

We further developed a handbook on The Criminal Justice Response to Support Victims of Acts of Terrorism. This resource draws upon national experiences and programmes to support victims of acts of terrorism, addressing relevant international standards and norms as well as national legislation.

Together with our partners at the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism, we have developed Model Legislative Provisions to Support the Needs and Protect the Rights of Victims of Terrorism, published in February 2022.

The provisions aim to support lawmakers by serving as a model for the review of existing laws and procedures related to victims of terrorism. The provisions can systematise and promote the exchange of information regarding existing good practices.

Donors

Our work on supporting the victims of terrorism has been supported by contributions from Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden.

United Nations

Office on Drugs and Crime