Opening Remarks of Aileen Adams

National Crime Victims' Rights Week

Great Hall of Justice

April 18, 1997

Good morning. I am Aileen Adams, the director of the Office for Victims of Crime in the Justice Department. It is my great privilege to welcome all of you here for the 16th commemoration of National Crime Victims' Rights Week. Each year, our office coordinates one of the highlights of this week -- the presentation of the crime victim service awards, which are the highest federal honor for victim advocacy.

Seated on the podium to my left are the recipients of this prestigious award. You will meet them in a moment.

To my right are victim advocates and representatives of some of the many agencies which collaborate with our office to improve services to crime victims:

Carolyn Hightower, Deputy Director of the Office for Victims of Crime; then

Rose Ochi, Director of the Community Relations Service;

John Dwyer, Acting Associate Attorney General;

Jean Nelson, Executive Director, President's Crime Prevention Council;

Our vocalist, George Henderson;

Noel Brennan, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Justice Programs;

Eldie Acheson, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Policy Development, which works closely and effectively with us each and every day; and

Donna Bucella, Deputy Director, Executive Office for the United States Attorneys -- all 93 of whom helped to collect over half a billion dollars last year for the Crime Victims Fund -- vastly more money for local victim services than ever before.

We will begin our commemoration this morning with the presentation of the colors by the honor guard from the Department of the Interior, United States Park Police. They are one of the 70 Federal law enforcement agencies that OVC trains on victim-witness issues. The national anthem will be sung by George Henderson, from the Department's Community Relations Service, with which we work closely in responding to hate and bias crimes. Please rise.

Color Sergeant, please present the colors!

Today, we join with colleagues across America in commemorating National Crime Victims' Rights Week. It is a time when we remember those who have been victims of crime; when we celebrate our many accomplishments; and we honor extraordinary individuals, like the ones seated on this stage, who have dedicated their lives to helping others.

As you came in to the Justice Department today, you may have noticed the massive doors at the entrance. They're hard to miss. I bring them up because they symbolize the essence of what so many of us here do: we open the doors of the justice system for victims of crime.

I mean this quite literally: without the work of many of the people in the room today, crime victims would be left outside the doors of our system, without information and without a voice. That was true for Roberta Roper, here today, who had to listen with her ear pressed to the closed courtroom door to hear any of the trial of her daughter's murderers. Through your work, Roberta, and through the work of more people here than I can name, victim services have been increased, victim rights legislation has been passed, and the United States Constitution will be amended to open more courtroom doors -- and ensure that victims have the fundamental rights to be informed, present, and heard.

We open doors in other ways too: one of last year's award recipients, Marilyn Smith, deaf since the age of six and sexually assaulted as a teenager, has opened doors for victims of abuse through her innovative program in Seattle, funded in part by money we distribute to states. Her agency provides crucial services -- from deaf advocates to deaf and deaf-blind victims. There are many victims whose race, culture, or disability presents a unique barrier to obtaining justice. I take great pride in the work being done more and more across the country through the Federal funds we distribute to reach out to these victims, to make sure that the doors of justice are open for all.

We have a wonderful opportunity this year -- to use the dramatic increase in our Federal monies for crime victims to open even more doors -- for victims of hate and bias crime --- for victims in rural or remote areas --- for victims of the gang violence that plagues our nation --- and for other victims with special needs.

But perhaps our greatest challenge is to make sure that doors of opportunity and justice are open for our children. For them, we must open doors that lead away from the violence they may endure, towards hope and healing. I remember so well speaking to a father from East Los Angeles, who not long ago lost his teenage son -- a star pupil and athlete -- to gang violence. He said to me in words I will never forget, "I did everything for my own son -- but I forgot one thing. I forgot about all the other children." We have a chance to reach children, something the Attorney General has encouraged us to do from the moment she was confirmed. And many of our awardees are showing us the way.

Kari and Kristi, the two daughters of Viki Sharp, one of the advocates honored today, have learned at their mother's side the value of working to end victimization. Both girls are peer counselors for child victims and volunteers for victim organizations. That is the future we must seek to ensure. One where our children are not victims, but advocates. Together, we can help children move beyond violence and victimization to a future where all the right doors are open.

I am now going to turn the program and the presentation of awards over to one of the strongest victim advocates I know. She has asked every justice department employee and challenged every lawmaker, to provide rights and services to crime victims as though they were helping their own mother, their father, or their own child. It is my pleasure to introduce Attorney General Janet Reno, whose door is always wide open to crime victims and their concerns.

Closing

It is traditional to close this ceremony with a song dedicated to the award recipients. As George returns to sing "Wind Beneath My Wings," let us remember the words of Azim Khamisa. During a recent interview, he said: "I realized that change had to start with me." Each awardee is an amazing testament to the power of people who act upon this principle.