Activities

Conferences

The European Forum organises biennial international conferences.

Final conference ' Developing standards for assistance to victims of terrorism'

2008: Tilburg, The Netherlands


Verona (Italy), 17-19 April 2008

'Building restorative justice in Europe. Cooperation between the public, policy makers, practitioners and researchers' is the title of the fifth conference of the European Forum, which will be held in Verona in April 2008.

Restorative justice is about people acting together to resolve their conflicts and to find a way to set wrongdoing right by repairing the harm incurred. It builds on the cooperation between different professions and institutions supporting the efforts of the stakeholders. Moreover, for the restorative justice movement to gain momentum and to become ingrained in society, an understanding and accepting attitude of the wider public, including the media, is needed. This conference will therefore invite participants to take a closer look at the practices and the structures of cooperation between the major actors in this field.

A substantial part of the conference will be devoted to the AGIS project "Restorative justice: an agenda for Europe". Next to presenting and discussing the difficulties encountered in Southern Europe to consolidate the implementation of restorative justice and their possible answers, the need and possibilities for further regulation and action in this field on behalf of the European Union will be discussed.

All documents related to this conference can be found here:
- the conference invitation, including an outline of the conference theme, a draft programme and practical information.
- the conference registration form.
- the call for workshop presentations.
- the waiver application form.
- the hotel accommodation form (for information see the conference invitation).

Pictures of the Verona conference can be found here.

Barcelona (Spain), 15-17 June 2006

Everyone wants 'justice', but people mean different things by it, as mediators and other restorative justice practitioners experience in their daily work.

The fourth conference of the European Forum, Restorative justice and beyond - an agenda for Europe, intended to broaden the perspective on restorative justice whilst retaining the core topic of 'justice'. In this conference the European Forum, for the first time, explored in detail what lies beyond the 'classical' application of restorative justice.

The conference covered five major themes:
1. restorative justice, peace-making and peace-building;
2. community mediation, working towards justice in a broad sense - beyond the intervention of criminal law agencies;
3. dealing with more severe crimes in a restorative way: exploring the place for restorative justice programmes that are not restricted to pre-trial diversion of petty offences;
4. the school mediation movement is increasingly widespread, attempting to handle conflicts beyond - or rather before - the law according to the same principles as restorative justice, and beyond the traditional offender orientation that marks the criminal justice system;
5. good practice for restorative justice, which is vital to establish a solid basis for the new approach to justice.

The full report of the conference is available here.

Budapest (Hungary), 14-16 October 2004

On 14-16 October 2004, the Forum organised its third biennial conference, "Restorative justice in Europe: Where are we heading?" in Budapest, Hungary. The conference mainly looked at the consequences of the increased implementation of restorative justice. Indeed, restorative justice is becoming fashionable with politicians and the criminal justice system in several European countries. Why has it suddenly attracted so much interest? Should we welcome it or treat it with caution? Are there specific societal factors that favour restorative justice? The conference reviewed the present situation in a European context, but also considered potentially positive and negative effects when restorative justice is being embraced by the establishment.
On the other hand, some initiatives in countrues especially in Eastern Europe are still struggling to find a place for restorative justice, to make it known and understood by professionals and the public and to influence the criminal justice system.
We should take care that the restorative justice ideals and values are not overruled by the established criminal justice system, but we should also consider strategies that will enable restorative justice to develop its transformative potential.
217 people from 35 different European and non-European countries participated in this conference, making it the best attended conference that the Forum has organised up till now. More than 50 Central and Eastern Europeans could benefit from a waiver of the registration fee. They were invited to the conference in the framework of the AGIS 2 project.

The full report of the conference is available here.

Oostende (Belgium), 10-12 October 2002

On 10-12 October 2002, the Forum organised its second biennial conference, "Restorative justice and its relation to the criminal justice system", in Oostende, at the Belgian coast. This conference brougt together some 180 people from all around Europe to discuss the modes of co-operation between the criminal justice system and restorative justice practices. The conference focused on the perception of restorative justice practices by different agencies of the criminal justice system and on the way these practices can have an impact on the different stages of the criminal justice process. The relationship between the criminal justice system and restorative justice practices was explored at the different stages of the criminal justice process and from the viewpoint of its respective protagonists: the police, the state prosecutors, the judges, the prison and other agencies involved in the implementation of (non-) custodial sentences.

The papers presented at this conference have been brought together in a PDF-document. Click here to open the publication.

Leuven (Belgium), 27-29 October 1999

The Forum's first conference, Victim-Offender Mediation in Europe. Making Restorative Justice Work, was organised in Leuven on 27 till 29 October 1999. 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. It brought together about 140 people from 24 different European countries.
For an overview of the programme of this conference, please click here.
Some of the papers presented at this conference were collected in a book.