[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 82 (Friday, April 29, 1994)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 22123-22124]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-10479]


[[Page Unknown]]

[Federal Register: April 29, 1994]


  


                        Presidential Documents 


Federal Register
Vol. 59, No. 82
Friday, April 29, 1994

____________________________________________________________________

Title 3--
The President
                Proclamation 6678 of April 25, 1994

 

National Crime Victims' Rights Week, 1994

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                Every day, our Nation's peace is shattered by crime. 
                Violent crime and the fear it provokes are crippling 
                our society, limiting our personal freedom, and fraying 
                the ties that bind us. No corner of America, it often 
                seems, is safe from increasing levels of criminal 
                violence. And more and more, the victims of these 
                crimes are random targets of assaults stemming from a 
                serious breakdown of values in our families and our 
                communities.

                National Crime Victims' Rights Week is a time when our 
                Nation pauses to seriously reflect on these innocent 
                victims of crime and on those who are working all 
                across this country in their behalf. Thousands of 
                people--many of them volunteers who have been victims 
                themselves--are tirelessly striving at the Federal, 
                State, and local levels to provide emotional support, 
                guidance, and financial assistance to help crime 
                victims recover from their trauma and to ensure that 
                they are treated equitably and sensitively as their 
                cases progress through the criminal justice system.

                My Administration is working to stop the violence today 
                to ensure fewer victims tomorrow. The pending crime 
                bill is tough and smart and fair, with victims' 
                concerns as its centerpiece. It will strengthen 
                programs that combat violence against women, it will 
                impose a life sentence--without possibility of parole--
                on repeat, violent offenders, and it will amend the 
                Victims of Crime Act to expand Federal resources 
                available for crime victims' services, and it will 
                promote the development of State registries for child 
                abusers. We are encouraging citizens to assume personal 
                responsibility for improving their neighborhoods and to 
                get involved in finding solutions to the violence in 
                their communities.

                Those who give of themselves to assist victims are 
                helping immeasurably in this effort. They are there for 
                their neighbors. They are there to provide comfort when 
                someone has lost a child to random gunfire, when the 
                sanctity of someone's home has been invaded by an 
                intruder, when someone has been robbed, brutalized, or 
                beaten. National Crime Victims' Rights Week affords us 
                the opportunity to express our appreciation to these 
                ``good neighbors'' and to renew our commitment to 
                meeting the needs and ensuring the rights of crime 
                victims.

                I encourage communities across the Nation to facilitate 
                the restorative process. Offenders must take 
                responsibility and be held accountable for what they 
                have done. We must encourage victims to cooperate with 
                law enforcement agencies and help them to rebuild their 
                lives and their communities through volunteer efforts 
                and community service projects. And community 
                institutions must afford the same rights to the victim 
                as those given to the accused and to the offender. This 
                includes initiatives such as community policing, 
                community prosecutors, and community action advocates. 
                Members of AmeriCorps promise a source of untapped 
                potential for even more victim service agencies in our 
                cities and towns. In fact, thousands will be making 
                their presence felt this summer in our national service 
                Summer of Safety programs. The problem of violence is a 
                problem for all Americans. It is not a partisan issue. 
                Strong pro-victim measures must be enacted in order to 
                give our children a brighter future.

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the 
                United States of America, by virtue of the authority 
                vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United 
                States, do hereby proclaim the week of April 24 through 
                April 30, 1994, as National Crime Victims' Rights Week. 
                I urge all Americans to join in remembering the 
                innocent victims of crime and in honoring those who 
                labor selflessly in behalf of these victims and their 
                families. We must recommit ourselves to working with 
                our neighbors to stop the violence and to ensure safer 
                streets, schools, and playgrounds for our Nation's 
                children and for all of our citizens.

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                twenty-fifth day of April, in the year of our Lord 
                nineteen hundred and ninety-four, and of the 
                Independence of the United States of America the two 
                hundred and eighteenth.

                    (Presidential Sig.)>

[FR Doc. 94-10479
Filed 4-26-94; 4:27 pm]
Billing code 3195-01-P