[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 17 (Monday, May 2, 1994)]
[Pages 908-909]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 6678--National Crime Victims' Rights Week, 1994

April 25, 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

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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.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 4:27 p.m., April 26, 
1994]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on April 
29.