Biographies Restorative Justice & Law Working Group

Valentina Bonini is an Associate Professor of Criminal Procedure at the University of Pisa, where she also teaches Restorative Justice.
Her main focus within the working group is the relationship between the safeguards of restorative justice and those of criminal punitive justice. She believes that much of the resistance from justice professionals towards restorative justice stems from concerns about protecting principles such as the presumption of innocence, the right to defence, due process, and the overall legality that governs procedural activities and decisions. Another key issue she aims to explore is the differing roles of victims in restorative justice compared to criminal proceedings. Valentina stresses the importance of preserving the fundamental principles and characteristics of both systems, by establishing clear boundaries and carefully managing the connections between them.

Antonio Buonatesta is a psycho-criminologist (University of Leuven). He founded and directed one of the first local agencies offering restorative justice programmes for juvenile offenders in the Belgian French-speaking region (1984–2007). He is also the founder and director of ‘MEDIANTE’, an umbrella restorative justice agency operating across all Belgian French-speaking judicial districts (1998–2024). Antonio was involved in the task group established to explore the best way to incorporate restorative justice into law, which led in 2005 to a very inclusive restorative justice legislation, recognising restorative justice as a right available at all stages of the criminal procedure for all types of crimes. He is currently retired and serves as a board member of the European Forum for Restorative Justice. Contact: antonio.buonatesta@mediante.be. His interest in the group is to share reflections on introducing restorative justice into law from a practitioner’s perspective, drawing at least in part on the strengths and weaknesses observed in the 20-year-old Belgian legislation.

Margaux Coquet is a French PhD in Criminal Law who specialises in penal abolitionism and critical criminology. After three years of postdoctoral research at the University of Luxembourg and a six-month research stay at Columbia University in New York City, Dr Coquet is currently a researcher at the National Institute of Criminalistic and Criminology in Brussels. She has received a founding grant from the FSR to conduct a three-year study at UCLouvain on the principles and practices of transformative justice in response to sexual violence and environmental harm, starting in January 2026. Her interest in this working group is to analyse whether restorative justice can be an effective means to challenge the belief systems that inform the legislative process in criminal law, and to examine potential legal obstacles to the institutionalisation of justice practices that aim to be truly alternative to modern penal rationality.

Fabio Vieira Heerdt has worked as a judge for nearly 28 years. Since 2017, he has coordinated a restorative justice centre that engages with the community, schools, shelters, and cases within the criminal and juvenile justice systems. He has also contributed to the development of restorative justice policies at the court where he serves and is involved in training and educating new judges in this field. Working in a country with one of the highest incarceration rates, Fabio strongly believes that legislative reforms are necessary to increase victims’ participation and to introduce processes that consider the trauma experienced by both offenders and victims within the justice system.

Tomas Horehaj is a lawyer and criminologist, and the founder and chairperson of ReStart, o.z., a Slovak non-governmental organisation dedicated to the development of restorative justice. His work involves preparing policy papers, academic articles, studies, methodologies, and educational programmes in the fields of restorative justice, victimology, and criminal law. He also analyses legislative documents adopted by the European Commission and the Council of Europe, focusing on their implementation into national legal systems. He has been an active member of the European Restorative Justice Policy Network and regularly takes part in events organised by the European Forum for Restorative Justice. By joining the working group, he aims to support the integration of restorative justice principles into national legislation, contributing to a more humane approach to criminal justice that empowers victims, offenders, and communities. He is also committed to conducting evaluative research to assess the effectiveness and impact of restorative justice programmes, and to engaging in comparative analysis of different European legal systems to identify successful models and understand the cultural and structural factors that influence their implementation.

Viktória Kaslik, Project Officer at the Access to Justice Programme, Terre des hommes Hungary, and Dóra Kiss, Regional Programme Coordinator for Europe, Access to Justice, Terre des hommes, bring over 20 years of experience in the field of justice involving children. Their work focuses on supporting children and young people in claiming their right to fair and child-friendly justice. To create lasting impact, they collaborate with a wide range of professionals, including authorities, judges, lawyers, police, and both formal and informal actors involved in child and youth justice. Through the Access to Justice programme, they develop projects focused on restorative justice - such as the i-RESTORE 1 and 2 initiatives - examining how existing legal (particularly criminal) frameworks currently accommodate, or could accommodate, restorative practices. Their European office seeks to join the working group to share findings, contribute to collective learning, and engage in a co-creative environment with others exploring similar questions. They aim to foster collaboration and avoid fragmentation and duplication in the field by connecting with peers, including academics, in order to bridge the gap between theory and practice. Most importantly, they wish to ensure that children’s rights and perspectives are embedded in the group’s work, influencing strategies with a strong child-centred approach. They are also interested in exploring the legal and theoretical barriers to the broader implementation of restorative justice, and in investigating its relationship with legal pluralism.

Marie Keenan is Associate Professor at the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, University College Dublin, Ireland. She is a criminologist, forensic psychotherapist, restorative justice practitioner, and registered social worker. She is the author and editor of five books, including Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church (OUP 2012), Sexual Violence and Restorative Justice: Addressing the Justice Gap (with E. Zinsstag) (OUP 2022) (Open Access), and Transforming Justice Responses to Non-Recent Institutional Abuses (OUP 2025) (with A-M McAlinden & J. Gallen) (Open Access). She has held several high-level appointments nationally and internationally and is currently a member of the Advisory Group on Ending Sexual Violence and Harassment in Higher Education Institutions in Ireland. Website: https://people.ucd.ie/marie.keenan Email: marie.keenan@ucd.ie. Her interest in this working group is to forge a better understanding of, and relationship between, law and restorative justice and the transformative power of both in the interest of more elaborated and responsive systems of justice.

The co-chair Petra Šach is a legal expert, academic and restorative justice advocate who strives for its broad involvement in the Czech criminal law, both at the theoretical and policy level as well as in practice. In the same time she is committed on promotion of Restorative Justice on the European level with her involvement in work of the European Forum for Restorative Justice, where she focuses on policy issues, agenda of gender-based violence and governance of the organisation. Petra serves a EFRJ Board member since 2020 and the Secretary of the Board since 2022. She is also leading the Czech Institute for Restorative Justice (NGO) and is involved in several governmental and non-governmental platforms on criminal justice, policy and restorative justice agenda. She is co-author of the Strategy on Restorative Justice for the Czech Republic that is incorporated in the program declaration of the current Czech government. Her main skills, apart of the legal background, is to bring main stakeholders of the criminal justice field into dialogue (i.e. Restorative Platform, involving representatives of the highest institutions of the Czech Criminal Justice field) focusing on the application and transformation of the criminal justice system into restorative one. She is also involved in advocacy and legislation agenda on restorative justice. Petra, as academic, is lecturing criminal law and restorative justice to law students as well as legal professionals (Law Faculty, Palacky University/ Justice Academy etc.). She regularly publishes and lectures on mentioned topics in the Czech Republic as well as abroad.

Claudia Mazzucato is Associate Professor of Criminal Law at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, Italy, where she also teaches Restorative Justice and Restorative Justice in Complex Settings. She contributed to the drafting of the comprehensive Italian legislation on restorative justice adopted in 2022. Claudia believes strongly that the legal field and restorative justice should move closer together. She emphasises the need for cross-fertilisation between restorative justice and criminal justice through study, research, and practice-oriented activities such as seminars with professionals, closely connected to the policy work of the European Forum for Restorative Justice. She advocates for the updating and legal adaptation of current EU, Council of Europe, and UN documents on restorative justice to ensure they align with fundamental safeguards and the principles of criminal law and procedure.

Sylvie Nicole is a lawyer specialised in international criminal law and human rights. She works as a consultant on development and cooperation programmes focusing on rule of law, justice and security sector reform, peacebuilding, mediation, protection, and civil society support in crisis and transition countries. Sylvie aims to promote the values and practices of restorative justice within legal and judicial system reforms. She supports public institutions, non-state actors, communities, offenders, and victims in finding alternatives to traditional sentencing and retributive approaches. By sharing her knowledge and expertise with members of the working group, she seeks to learn and explore ways to integrate restorative justice into criminal laws, procedures, and policies, fostering more effective, rights-based, and inclusive processes of reparation and healing.

Sandra Pavelka, PhD, specialises in restorative justice law and policy. She is a Professor and Founding Director of the Institute for Youth and Justice Studies at Florida Gulf Coast University in Ft. Myers, FL, USA. Dr Pavelka is an internationally recognised expert and scholar in restorative justice. She previously served as Project Administrator of the Balanced and Restorative Justice (BARJ) Project at the Office of Justice and Delinquency Prevention, US Department of Justice. Dr Pavelka is a member of the European Forum for Restorative Justice Working Group on Restorative Justice and Law, and serves on the National Association of Community and Restorative Justice (NACRJ) Law and Policy Committee (Immediate Past Chair). She has authored numerous books and publications, including her latest book, Restorative Justice in Legal Systems, Education and the Community: Reflections on What Works, Where We Can Grow and What’s Next (2024), co-authored with Anne Seymour (JKP Publishing). Her interest in the working group lies in international restorative justice law and policy and in collaborative advocacy of restorative justice.

Eduardo Santos Itoiz worked as a practising lawyer from 1996 to 2015, focusing on criminal, penitentiary, and environmental administrative law. He joined various special shifts within the Bar Association of Pamplona, including those for speedy trials, immigration, minors, and criminal cases, and completed a specialisation course in juvenile jurisdiction. From 2005 to 2014, he served as a lawyer-mediator in the Criminal Mediation Project supported by the General Council of the Judiciary, involving several courts in Navarra. He was elected Deputy for Navarre in the Spanish Congress (Confederal Group) from 2015 to 2019. During this period, he acted as spokesperson for his group on the Justice Committee and contributed to key legislative reforms, such as the 2018 amendment to the Organic Law of the Judiciary and the proposed reform of the Citizen Security Law. From 2019 to 2023, he served as Minister for Migration Policies and Justice in the Government of Navarre. In this role, he promoted the Foral Law on Restorative Justice, Mediation and Community Restorative Practices, the Law on Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church, and the Foral Law against Racism and Xenophobia. Until January 2024, he worked as an adviser on restorative justice in the Cabinet of the Minister of Memory, Justice and Rights of the Generalitat of Catalonia. He is currently conducting research in Public Law at the Public University of Navarre and serves as a member of the Council of Navarre, the region’s highest advisory body. He is committed to promoting best practices and effective legislation on restorative justice throughout Europe.

Roberta Schaller is a lawyer, criminologist, and practitioner in restorative justice with expertise in Trauma Informed Practice (TIP). She is currently working on a project with the Swiss Government focused on the rehabilitation of victims of domestic violence. Her work includes developing legislation that addresses the four forms of domestic violence - sexual, psychological, physical, and economic - incorporating concepts such as coercive control and chronic fear. Through her involvement in the working group on law, Roberta aims to promote the culture of restorative justice and influence the criminal justice system. She believes that an ideal justice system should not only seek to repair harm through sentencing but also actively promote healing for all parties involved. This healing process, in her view, should extend beyond the victim and offender to include the wider community.

The co-chair Katerina Soulou holds a PhD in Criminal Law and specialises in the legal and penological dimensions of restorative justice. From September 2023 to November 2024, she worked as a researcher at the French National School of Prison Administration (ENAP). She currently serves as Director of Research and Development at Social Bar & Co, an innovative and socially responsible enterprise based in France. Although restorative justice is becoming increasingly institutionalised, its relationship with the law - and in particular with the criminal justice system - remains insufficiently explored. Building on her doctoral research, this working group represents a natural progression in addressing key legal and penological questions related to restorative justice, such as its interaction with criminal proceedings and the existing regulatory gaps. Her aim is to work collaboratively with legal scholars and practitioners to examine restorative justice through the lens of fundamental rights and legal safeguards, with the goal not only of integrating restorative practices into the criminal justice system, but also of challenging conventional penal approaches in pursuit of a more effective and coherent justice framework.