Over the past year, 841 victims of domestic or sexual violence in Brussels sought support from lawyers trained through the ‘Lawyer Victim Assistance’ project.
This figure was announced on Monday at a press conference by the Dutch-speaking and French-speaking bar associations of Brussels.
Since the project’s inception, 315 lawyers in Brussels have completed the specialised training, and the initiative is now being replicated in Charleroi and Limburg.
The programme, launched in November 2023, is a collaboration between the Brussels Bar Association, the Brussels Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Brussels Capital-Ixelles Police, and the Institute for the Equality of Women and Men.
It operates on three main pillars: tailored training for lawyers —including legal aspects combined with attention to the psychological impact of violence, victim support, and perpetrator accountability; an accessible public registry listing trained lawyers; and free legal consultations offered to victims by these professionals.
Between November 2024 and October 2025, the number of trained lawyers doubled from 150 to 315. According to Pascale Poncin, the project’s coordinator, over 60 lawyers are currently volunteering free consultations.
By 28 October 2025, the project had already supported 841 victims—more than double the previous year’s count of 303. On average, twenty calls for assistance are received weekly, compared to ten calls per week the year before.
While addressing a clear demand, Poncin warns of a grim reality. According to federal police data, the number of reported sexual offences in Brussels rose from 1,846 in 2023 to 2,714 in 2024. Between January and June 2025 alone, 1,048 cases were registered.
