About the Forum

Background


Restorative Justice as an international movement

The debate on how the consequences of an offence could be faced and resolved by those immediately involved, namely the victim and the offender, started in Europe already in the late sixties. In that period, concrete proposals for innovative projects were formulated in various European countries. The discussion took place in the same time or even still before the first experiments with victim-offender mediation were set up in Canada and the U.S. in the middle of the 1970s. Moreover, some of the first North-American initiatives were clearly influenced by the theoretical work of European scholars.

In European countries, the present form of victim-offender mediation came into existence in the 1980s. A first pilot project began in Norway in 1981 and Finland followed two years later. In Austria the model is called ‘out-of-court offence resolution’ and has been introduced nationwide first in juvenile courts (1988) and in the meanwhile also in the Criminal Procedural Law in general (January 1st 2000). In England, after small-scale experiments from 1979 onwards, the Home Office funded and researched four projects from 1985-87, but they have not expanded nearly as rapidly as in Germany, which started at about the same time but now has over 400 services. In France, where work also began in the mid-1980s, it was linked from the outset with victim support.

Initially, victim-offender mediation showed a rather slow development. Although experiments were deemed positive, not least by the victims and offenders involved, the movement did not immediately receive the influence and support that was hoped for. The approach was very new within the culture of legal professionals and criminal justice policy makers. In most countries more than a whole decade had to pass in order to develop a practice of some significance. The creation of a legal framework sometimes provided an important impetus, but did not lead everywhere to the expected breakthrough. From a quantitative point of view the practice remained rather limited. From a qualitative point of view, however, many small-scale experiments and also some national programmes provided, in this first phase, conclusive evidence that this way of responding to crime contained a strong innovative potential.

During the 1990s, the number of mediation programmes and the amount of cases dealt with on an annual basis increased steadily in European countries. Victim-offender mediation has now become a well-founded practice in some countries. In some of these countries, volunteers play an important role in daily mediation practice, whereas in other countries the intervention is highly professionalised. Diversity is equally shown in the type of relationship that the mediation services have with the criminal justice system: from exclusively system-based to primarily community based. The practice - contrary to common belief - does not in any way remain limited to property or less serious offences. Although the focus of victim-offender mediation in some European countries is still predominantly on juveniles, the application in general criminal law is gaining more and more acceptance. Experience of mediation in the successive stages of the criminal justice process, also after sentencing, is growing.

The latter refers to the increasing trend of promoting restitution and redress as eminent principles of criminal justice in general. In this sense, victim-offender mediation is just one - but in the present European context the most important - model of restorative justice. Restorative justice then is seen as a broad approach oriented on repairing as far as possible the harm caused by crime. The active participation by the victim, the offender and possibly other parties concerned forms a core element. Discussion exists on which other parties should be involved, and in particular whether criminal justice officials - as representatives of the community or the state - should play a direct role in restorative justice processes. The discussion is most relevant for the more community-oriented models of restorative justice, such as family group conferencing. The conferencing approach seems to bring a new wave of restorative justice, following evolutions in New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the U.S. There has been much interest in it in some European countries, and they are operating in the United Kingdom, and, on an experimental basis, in the Netherlands, Sweden and Belgium.

At the end of the 1990s, a new phase in the European development of victim-offender mediation could be distinguished. While countries like Germany, Norway, France, Austria and Belgium already had legislation at their disposal at the beginning of the 1990s, at the end of the decade a legal framework was developed in several other countries (U.K., Finland, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovenia) or the field of practice was enlarged legally and refined considerably (France, Germany, Austria). At this moment, still other countries, such as Sweden, are in the process of adopting new legislation, after a nation-wide experimentation period. Pilot projects on victim-offender mediation are equally taking place in - amongst others - Denmark, the Netherlands, Ireland, Luxembourg, Spain and Italy. Finally, Central and Eastern European countries deserve to be mentioned separately. Apart from Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia, initiatives have been taken in Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Russia.

Origins of the Forum

On 8 December 2000, two years of preparatory work culminated in the formal establishment of the European Forum for Victim-Offender Mediation and Restorative Justice (now: European Forum for Restorative Justice). This non-governmental organisation was set up because European victim-offender mediation projects - although a steadily growing practice with more than 800 projects all over Europe - had seldom established contacts beyond national borders. Informal contacts revealed that practitioners, academics and policy makers were looking for a more regular exchange and mutual support in developing victim-offender mediation and other restorative justice practices.

A small group of people with a strong commitment to restorative justice wanted to build on this interest. In 1998 they obtained a non-recurrent funding from the European Union to launch a European network. This financing was granted by the Grotius programme of the European Commission, a supporting scheme to stimulate co-operation between European countries in the field of justice and home affairs. A co-ordinating group was formed, consisting of mediation experts from eight European countries: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Poland and the United Kingdom. Together with a secretariat based in the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology at the Catholic University of Leuven, this co-ordinating group prepared the creation of the European Forum.

One of the activities of the co-ordinating group was to organise a European conference. From 27 to 29 October 1999 the conference ‘Victim-Offender Mediation in Europe. Making Restorative Justice Work‘ was organised in Leuven, Belgium. The conference dealt with information and issues specifically on victim-offender mediation, but placed it in a larger theoretical and policy oriented context of Restorative Justice. This conference brought together about 140 people from 24 different European countries. The presentations at this conference have led to the publication of a book.

Also in the year 1999 discussions were started about the creation of a formal organisation. On several occasions a broad consultation was held on the topic of the structure and aims of this organisation in order to make sure that it reflected, to the largest extent possible, the views of the people working in the European restorative justice field. In June 2000, a technical seminar was held to continue the discussion about a draft formal constitution for the European Forum.

Thanks to the financial support of the Belgian and Norwegian governments, it was possible to continue the secretariat of the Forum into the year 2000. This enabled the Forum to start with a newsletter, the first issue of which appeared in June 2000.

On 8 and 9 December 2000, the Forum finally organised its launching event, which was attended by some 50 people from 15 different countries. During this meeting the constitution was discussed again. Then, the First General Meeting of the Forum was held, during which the constitution was adopted and by which the Forum became a formal organisation according to Belgian law.

Objectives of the Forum

As stated in article 4 of the constitution, the general aim of the Forum is to help establish and develop victim-offender mediation and other restorative justice practices throughout Europe.

To further this general aim, the Forum will pursue the following objectives:

and, such other objectives as the General Meeting shall from time to time determine.

In the realisation of above-mentioned general aim and objectives, the Forum is entitled to undertake all reasonable actions. These include:

It has been agreed that the main focus of the European Forum for Victim-Offender Mediation and Restorative Justice (now: European Forum for Restorative Justice) should be on mediation in criminal matters and related restorative developments, such as family group conferencing. Nevertheless, links should be made with other fields of mediation, such as family mediation, school mediation and community mediation. The Forum is concerned with both juveniles and adults, seen from the offender side.

The target group of the Forum consists of mediators and mediation services, policy makers, researchers and criminal justice practitioners all over Europe. Nevertheless, it was established that contacts should be further developed with other regions. Also, the Forum considers other European and international organisations working in the field of victim assistance, offender care and restorative justice as important partners in realising its objectives. One of the tasks of the European Forum is to follow up and stimulate policymaking in the field of restorative justice.

In its constitution, the Forum explicitly included the principle that it “actively seeks to provide opportunities for expressing contradictory points of view by everyone who is working for a humane system of justice for the benefit of victim, offender and the community”. This principle, together with the principles of openness, respect and the willingness to learn from all members, demonstrates that the Forum acknowledges that restorative justice is an approach to criminal justice that is still developing and that one should not defend just one ‘best model’ of restorative justice.

These principles also go to the heart of the intention of the Forum, which is not to be a place for the unilateral delivery of services, but rather to offer a channel for participation, exchange, mutual support and contact. They also support another main principle, which is the importance of interaction between the different target groups of the Forum. It is of crucial importance in developing a better way to deal with crime that both practice and research inform and support each other. And, both of these need to inform and support policy making and the work of criminal justice practitioners. The Forum, therefore, wants to be a place where these four groups can meet, where they can enter into discussion with each other and where they can co-operate in conceptualising and implementing restorative justice approaches.