Call for proposals - Athens 2025

The 13th International Seminar of the European Forum for Restorative Justice will focus on the transformative potential of restorative justice to address the vulnerabilities faced by children on the move. 

From refugees and asylum seekers to those displaced by climate change, these children face heightened risks of violence, exploitation, and discrimination. 

By drawing on the metaphor of an 'odyssey,' this seminar will explore how restorative practices can create pathways of inclusion, resilience, and empowerment for children on the move while fostering dialogue with host communities.

1. High-Quality Restorative Justice Practice and Training:
   • Overcoming Bias: How can restorative practices counter discrimination and implicit bias and support inclusivity for children from diverse cultural, linguistic and social backgrounds?
   • Trauma-Informed Practices: How can restorative practices address the trauma of migration and displacement for children and their families?
   • Access to Justice: How can barriers such as selective referrals, language, and cultural differences be overcome to ensure equitable access to justice for children on the move?
   • Restorative Pedagogy: How can restorative practices promote accountability and agency among children in multicultural contexts?
2. Extending the Reach of Restorative Justice:
   • Addressing Hatred and Polarisation: How can restorative justice counter hate crimes and hate speech and reduce societal polarisation?
   • Gender-Based Violence: What role can restorative practices play in addressing the exploitation of girls and women during migration and after resettlement?
   • Institutional Abuse and Structural Violence: How can restorative practices tackle systemic injustices such as racism or ageism in institutional settings?
   • Climate Change and Migration: How can restorative justice respond to ecological injustices contributing to forced migration?
3. Restorative Justice in Specific Settings:
   • Communities: How can restorative practices foster positive relationships between migrants and host communities?
   • Schools: How can schools integrate restorative practices to support cultural integration and mutual respect?
   • Closed Institutions: What are the best restorative practices for detention centres and other restrictive settings?

Participants can actively participate in the programme of the seminar by submitting a workshop proposal. 

It is important to consider the diversity of EFRJ participants (researchers, practitioners, policymakers, activists), the larger community (beyond restorative justice) and/or local partners when organizing a workshop session.

All workshop sessions will run for 80 minutes (additional 10 minutes are calculated for participants to walk from one session to the next one). Some workshop sessions may include more presenters, grouped together by the Programme Committee.

The Programme Committee will evaluate the proposals, sometimes suggesting changes in the format, timings, contents, or speakers to make it coherent with the full programme.

To obtain a full workshop session, remember that we will give priority to proposals that will:

• encourage open discussion, collaboration, and interactivity (rather than those that are in a lecture format followed by a Q&A); and/or
• explore innovative models and approaches and prioritize diversity and inclusion through both contents and format; and/or
• feature more than one contributor, possibly with diverse backgrounds, during the session.

Please note that all workshop presenters (as all participants) have to register and pay the participation fee for the seminar. Registrations will open in January 2025 (including the application for waivers). 

Please note that the Programme Committee may re-contact you to revise the contents, format and/or timing, if needed. You can choose among one of these types of formats:

• Panel discussion – 80 minutes (This session involves a group of minimum 2 presenters introducing a topic and facilitating a dialogue with the audience; the proposal must include the introduction to the topic as well as potential questions for discussion; please contact other presenters and submit a joined abstract).
• Skills workshop – 80 minutes (This session involves one or more trainers or senior practitioners who will facilitate practical exercises to learn specific skills and methodologies and to share field experience on specific situations. The proposal must include the details of the activity, objectives and methodology, including min-max number of participants, their level of experience, and eventual materials needed).
• Presentation – 25 minutes (This session is meant for individuals willing to share their work, experiences, practices or research findings; this individual contribution will be combined with others of a similar theme into one parallel session).
• Other – in case you have another format in mind (e.g. movie screening, poster show) please specify your format in the abstract.

Proposals must be submitted using the form below accompanied by:

• Personal contact details (name, job title, organisation, email, country), including emails of potential co-authors
• Title of your proposal (max 10 words)
• Type of contribution: panel discussion, presentation or other
• Time needed for the contribution: 25-80min
• Full abstract, including main key-messages/ key-questions and a detailed description of the session in terms of interaction with the audience, to convince the Programme Committee about the relevance of your work (max 400 words for internal use)
• Abstract’s summary to convince participants to attend your workshop (max 150 words for the the booklet, if the proposal is accepted)
• Biography of the presenter(s) (max 50 words each)
• Keywords that describe your workshop/ presentation

Please save your proposal in a Word document and copy paste your responses in the webform for your own reference.

We cannot guarantee yet a deadline extension, so please make sure to send your proposal within the deadline.