News and events

The IIRP invites you to submit a proposal to present at "Restoring Community in a Disconnected World," the IIRP's 11th World Conference, to be held October 22-24, 2008, at the Holiday Inn Select Toronto Airport, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

The School of Sociology and Applied Social Sciences of the Universtiy of Ulster offers different courses on restorative practices.

Australian Radio Program Presents Show on Restorative Justice

Victim Support Europe has launched its first manifesto, calling for the establishment of victim support organisations in all EU Member States and for the protection and promotion of victims' rights to become an EU priority. (source: Victim Support Scotland)

The School of Sociology and Applied Social Sciences of the University of Ulster is recruiting now for a Postgraduate Diploma in Restorative Practices.

The full line-up of keynote speakers announced.

Restorative Justice Online informs about the availability of short clips on restorative justice on the broadcasting service YouTube.

The Correctional Service of Canada (CSC), the Regroupement des organismes de justice alternative du Québec (ROJAQ) and the Association québecoise de justice réparatrice et médiation (AQJRM) will be holding the National Restorative Justice Symposium in Montreal on November 20 and 21, 2007.

The Groupement Pro Médiation organises a module of continous training on penal mediation which will take place on Tuesday 27 and Wednesday 28 November.

Fraser Region Community Justice Initiatives (CJI) offers Restorative Justice based training sessions that are open to the general public during the fall 2007 and winter 2008. CJI is a non-profit society that has operated Restorative Justice programmes and services for more than 20 years.

In the report of the last meeting of the CEPEJ, the representative of the European Committee on Legal Co-operation (CDCJ) pointed out that mediation is a field in which the CDCJ might, over the next two years, envisage updating certain recommendations in the light of the guidelines adopted by the CEPEJ.

From November 18th to 25th 2007 the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) in collaboration with the Church Council on Justice and Corrections (CCJC) call Canada and the world to awareness and celebration of Restorative Justice.

The European Institute for Business Mediation and the European Mediation Network Initiative organise the 2007 European Mediation Conference “Mediation goes Europe”.

Phillip and Harold Gatensby, of the Tlingit nation from the Yukon, Canada will be in Norway in September-October 2008 and will run three courses on peacemaking circles.

The website of the Prison Fellowship International now has a French equivalent.

The International Institute for Restorative Practices organises its 10th World Conference on 7-9 November 2007 in Budapest, Hungary.

On 10 July 2007, Race on the Agenda released their report "Restoring relationships: addressing hate crime through restorative justice".

The European Forum is organising together with INTERVICT a seminar on 9-10 and 12-13 November 2007 in Leuven.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has published a new book titled 'Handbook on Restorative justice programmes'.

On 14 June 2006, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted Recommendation Rec(2006)8 on assistance to crime victims. Point 13 of the appendix to this recommendation refers to mediation.

The European Forum is providing consultancy in a project run by the Istanbul Bilgi University.

The European Forum has been awarded a project by the European Commission on “Developing standards for assistance to victims of terrorism”.

On 11-14 September 2006, Suggnomè (the Belgian umbrella organisation for mediation and restorative justice) is organising a visit to the different mediation centres in Belgium.

The Restorative Justice Consortium (UK) has compiled various studies from all over the world that looked into the effect of restorative justice on re-offending.

A survey from SmartJustice and Victim Support showed that victims are not that punitive as commonly thought.

Please see the work on restorative justice being undertaken by Professor David Miers and his team in conjunction with colleagues in Poland.

The results of a GROTIUS II project on restorative justice are now available online.

The IIRP's Real Justice website now has a restorative justice library.

There was "unprecedented interest" in restorative justice at the 11th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, in April 2005, in Bangkok, Thailand.

During 2002 and 2003, a group of restorative justice practitioners in British Columbia, Canada, compiled a practice guide.

The last issue of the VOMA Connections (No.19, Winter 2005) includes a comprehensive article on "Community Involvement in Restorative Justice" by Martin Wright, assisted by Orlane Foucault. The full article can be downloaded from the website of the Victim Offender Mediation Association (www.voma.org).

The International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP) held the third in a series of three conferences dedicated to the theme of "Building a Global Alliance for Restorative Practices and Family Empowerment," March 3-5, 2005, in Penrith, New South Wales, just west of Sydney, Australia. The IIRP''s sister organization, Real Justice Australia, co-hosted the conference.

"Supporting Pupils, Schools and Families: An Evaluation of the Hampshire Family Group Conferences in Education Project," a report by the University of Sheffield, England, U.K., evaluates 50 family group conferences (FGCs) carried out in schools in Hampshire County, from implementation through many months after each conference.

The Restorative Justice Consortium (UK) has recently published a useful document collecting the most frequently asked questions and their answers concerning the implementation and application of restorative processes in the adult criminal justice system in England and Wales.

Results of a follow-up study on the effects of a restorative environment on young offenders have replicated the positive conclusions of the original study, "Evaluation of a Restorative Milieu: CSF Buxmont School Day Treatment Programs 1999-2001."

"Mapping Restorative Justice: Developments in 25 European Countries", edited by David Miers and Jolien Willemsens for the European Forum for Victim-Offender Mediation and Restorative Justice (2004) is an up to date publication in the field of restorative justice. It gives a very good overview of what really is happening in practice, legislation and policy, as well as what does research show on the evaluation of restorative justice programmes in Europe.

Rebuilding Community Connections – Mediation And Restorative Justice, written by Ivo Aertsen, Robert Mackay, Christa Pelikan, Jolien Willemsens and Martin Wright (2004).

On 7-9 November 2004 Ministers and senior officials from the 46 member states of the Council of Europe met in Oslo, Norway, in order to discuss how to tackle the problem of violence in everyday life. In the framework of the Norwegian presidency, the Norwegian Minister of Justice hosted this ad hoc conference. During the conference a draft resolution on the prevention of everyday violence in Europe was presented, where one of the principles for an integrated policy response to violence was developing the use of mediation (appendix g: mediation as a consensual and restorative means of preventing and solving conflicts should be promoted while its scope of application, methods and ethics should be clarified).

On 24-25 September 2004 a jubilee seminar entitled “The Application of Restorative Justice in Resolving Local and Cross-Border Conflicts” took place at the Council Chamber in Wroclaw.

The VOMA Conference Committee has made the decision to change the 2005 conference dates to October 24-28 2005 to avoid conflicting with the annual victim conference held in Pennsylvania in November.

Guidelines published by the Training and Accreditation Policy Group of the British Home Office consists a list of core knowledge and skills which RJ practitioners should have; how they should prepare participants to take part in the process; how to facilitate the process itself, with face-to-face meetings, reaching agreement, and following up afterwards.

The "Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme" (ISSP), developed by the Youth Jusice Board (England and Wales), offers the most rigorous community penalty ever available for under 18s. It targets the most difficult young offenders in England and Wales.

New research by Theo Gavrielides (LL.B, LL.M, PhD) and Dale Coker (BA, MSc, MA) shows restorative justice (RJ) values of compassion, communication, understanding, honest repentance, forgiving and reintegration could be used to construct an auxiliary system to deal with the sexual offences that occurred in the Catholic Church.

Dr. Howard Zehr has been awarded the 2003 International Prize for Restorative Justice by the PFI Centre for Justice and Reconciliation.

Restorative Justice Online collected information about webbased manuals for starting restorative justice programmes.

In Research Summary, published by Corrections Research and Development, Solicitor General Canada, the question was posed "Can restorative justice programs influence offender recidivism?"

Restorative Justice Online collected on-line resources that address the many issues in the debate around the use of restorative justice in cases of domestic violence.

Restorative Justice Online announced that Canada and New Zealand are the first countries to have started the process of creating guidelines and standards for the use of restorative justice programmes.

The July 2003 issue of the Journal International de Victimologie/International Journal of Victimology features 5 interesting articles on restorative justice in French.

For four years a victim-offender mediation experiment took place in Ringsted, Roskilde, and Glostrup police districts in Denmark. CASA (the Centre for Alternative Social Analysis) has followed the experiment during all 4 years and has made a final evaluation.

The Relational Justice Bulletin is published three times a year by the Relationships Foundation.

In July, the British Home Office published its new strategy on restorative justice.

The initiative to set up a European Network of National Contact Points for Restorative Justice was discussed in the European Parliament.

A COST (European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research) action on "Restorative Justice Developments in Europe" has been launched.

The Belgian government has introduced an initiative to adopt a European Union Council Decision setting up a European Network of National Contact Points for Restorative Justice.

In 1998, Thames Valley Police launched a restorative cautioning initiative, whereby police officers administering cautions were meant to invite all those affected by the offence, including victims, to a meeting.

Restorative Justice Online has an interesting new feature: RJ City.

Although the UN Basic Principles were not adopted at the Eleventh Session of the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, they were endorsed, thereby encouraging Member States to make use of them.