Restorative Justice Week
Every year, on the 3rd week of November, individual pioneers and well-established organisations working in the field of restorative justice across the world organise a series of events and campaigns to raise awareness about restorative justice. Each year the EFRJ proposes a specific theme for the week and encourages its members to take part in the celebrations and awareness raising actions. The next theme will be announced during Summer 2023.
Are you already busy with organising something? Get in touch if you need support to promote your idea!
The Restorative Justice Week 2023 will take place between 19 - 25 November 2023. More information will come soon. Please check again this page!
A Little History
It all started in 1975 in England, where prison chaplains launched a day to remember incarcerated people, the ‘Prisoner’s Sunday’. The idea was then spread in other countries and 20 years later it become the ‘Prisoner’s Week’.
Finally, in 1996 Canada expanded the prisoner’s week into the ‘Restorative Justice Week: Community, Victims, and Prisoners’, later shortened to ‘Restorative Justice Week’.
Nowadays, the International RESTORATIVE JUSTICE WEEK (#RJWeek) takes place every year all over Europe and beyond. The European Forum for Restorative Justice joins the annual international campaign since 2000 with initiatives organised by the Secretariat and by sharing information on events launched by our members!
The ‘Prisoner’s Week’ is still celebrated and in Belgium the national prison week and our international Restorative Justice Week are celebrated with a good collaboration between the EFRJ and local organisers working in prison settings: for example, in 2017 their theme is about family members of prisoners, something where restorative justice can have a proper say.
Restorative Justice Week 2022 - Releasing the potential of restorative justice: available, accessible & adaptable!
20-26 November 2022 - Join the global campaign & celebration !
As the key theme for this year's Restorative Justice Week (#RJWeek, 20-26 November 2022) the EFRJ highlights the significance of 'access to restorative justice', and uses the slogan: "Releasing the potential of restorative justice: available, accessible & adaptable!"
Today hundreds of thousands people affected by harm cannot access the benefits of restorative justice for a number of reasons, and we think this should change.
We invite our members to use this week for celebration, raising awareness and to organise their events or campaigns linked to this topic, to help make the message more recognised!
What to do?
- Read the Access to Restorative Justice brief to get a good summary of the key issues linked to the topic.
- Join the online campaign, by sharing information (on restorative justice, on the significance of granting equal access to restorative justice, and on current #RJWeek events), and messages! Use the hashtags: #RJWeek #ReleasingThePotentialOfRestorativeJustice #AcccessToRestorativeJustice
- Organise your local event or campaign - and inform us, so we can spread the word!
- As every year, the EFRJ will gather and give visibility to all contributions to the week. Submit your event or campaign details below.
- Check our shared calendar below about the happenings, events and campaigns and join the ones near to you!
Please contact Bálint Juhasz if you:
- Need advise for organising your Restorative Justice Week event.
- Want to publish your Restorative Justice Week event on our website or other communication channels.
- Want just to inform us about your Restorative Justice Week initiative or have other questions about the this year's Restorative Justice Week or previous celebrations.
EFRJ contributions for the Restorative Justice Week 2022
The EFRJ has chose to focus this year's Restorative Justice Week on the significance of 'access to restorative justice', and uses the slogan: "Releasing the potential of restorative justice: available, accessible & adaptable!"
Like the past years, we have created a banner that we like to offer to anyone interested in communicating about the significance of restorative justice around these special dates. Feel free to use it in all your communication initiatives for Restorative Justice Week 2022!
It is also an EFRJ tradition to collect and disseminate Restorative Justice Week events happening in Europe and beyond around that week using our social media, newsflash and very practical tools like the calendar you can find below. Check it out and add all initiatives you would like to attend on your calendar in one click.
Starting from next Monday (21 November), a series of 5 free webinars will be organised by the EFRJ and its members. Two of them are interesting for anyone searching for creative ways to raise awareness on restorative justice: on 21 November two children's books interpreting restorative justice will be presented and on 8 December our Editorial Committee will facilitate a dialogue on the use of arts in promoting restorative justice. The other 3 webinars are dedicated to specific topics of some of our Working Groups: violent extremism (23 November), restorative cities (28 November) and gender-based violence (7 December). Registrations are required and free of charge. Spread the invitation to your networks!
Finally, like every year, we are happy to launch fresh relevant publications to celebrate the RJ Week. This year we are proud to share two briefs about "Access to Restorative Justice" and "Restorative Schools", the first edition of our new communication initiative about Policy News and the second publication of one of our working groups on Violent Extremism addressed to policy makers (for this last one you can attend the webinar on 23 November to meet the authors).
Help us collect and map events organised to celebrate the Restorative Justice Week in 2022.
We encourage our members to organise their local events, and help us make the extended network of restorative events visible by sharing information on what is happening at different locations around Europe and beyond.
If you are organiser of a local event (or several), please provide us information via this form.