October 2025

Get ready for this year’s Restorative Justice Week (#RJWeek25), taking place from the 16th-22nd November 2025. Together with restorative justice organisations worldwide, we will celebrate community achievements and raise awareness about the power of restorative justice under the theme: “From Question to Principle: Acces to Restorative Justice as a Human Right.” This theme is significant because it repositions justice beyond retributive paradigms that marginalise victims and often prevent meaningful accountability. Recognising access to restorative justice as a right, inherent within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserts that individuals and communities hold a legitimate claim to processes that acknowledge harm, responsibility, and repair outside punitive approaches. It establishes an obligation to create conditions for participatory justice, where victims, offenders, and affected communities act as agents in shaping outcomes, rather than passive subjects of state prosecution. 

The EFRJ will be promoting all #RJWeek events and sharing details of planned activities worldwide on our interactive map, which will be updated as new information comes in. Planning an event? Share the details here to have it featured on the map and expand its reach within the global community. Join us and sign the sign the "Access to Restorative Justice as a Human Right" manifesto to be launched during #RJWeek25. With Restorative Justice Week just a few weeks away, we look forward to engaging with practitioners, advocates, and communities around the world. In the meantime, if you’d like to explore more materials and insights on theme, you can find them here. 

Jorge Ollero Perán reflects on a week of learning, dialogue, and discovery at the 10th EFRJ Summer School in San Sebastián, the first held in both Spanish and English. Representing the EFRJ Board, he joined the Spanish-language group led by expert practitioner Raúl Calvo Soler to explore the complexity of institutional harm and how it goes beyond individual cases, "restorativism" as a broader philosophy for understanding human relationships, and conflict mapping as an innovative tool to address abuse within institutions.

This edition brought together over 30 practitioners and researchers from around the world to highlight how restorative justice can facilitate dialogue and support victims of institutional harm. Read Jorge's full reflections and key insights here!

James Graham’s play Punch brings the significance of restorative justice to the stage. Based on Jacob Dunne’s memoir Right from Wrong, it tells the story of a young man whose impulsive act caused a tragic death and the subsequent meeting with the victim’s parents that shaped his journey toward accountability and societal advocacy. The play explores responsibility, reflection, and personal change, demonstrating how restorative justice can create spaces for dialogue, understanding, and meaningful engagement.

For those wanting to dive deeper, the post-show conversation series After the Punch, co-hosted by The Forgiveness Project and Why Me?, examines the complexities of restorative justice and its impact on individuals and communities. International audiences can access these talks online.

Punch is currently running from 22 September – 29 November 2025 at the Apollo Theatre in London’s West End.

Photo Credit: Punch. (photo by Marc Brenner)

In our newsflashes we share the most interesting and relevant updated about our work and collect information from our members and other individuals and/or organisations working in related fields. Information includes news, local activities, international events, publications, inspiring talks or projects, and much more, taking place in Europe and beyond. Please contact us if you have any comments or any news you would like us to share in our future editions. You can enjoy the previous editions of the EFRJ Newsflashes here. Feel free to forward them to friends or colleagues and invite them to sign up on the EFRJ website!