EFRJ Working Groups: Call for members 2022

Proposers: Cristina Vasilescu (Il Gabbiano, Italy) and Ivo Aertsen (KU Leuven, Belgium)

Despite the learning process started within the Working Group on Restorative Cities (2019-2022), many challenges faced in the process of building a restorative city are still worthy of a deep consideration through a collective learning process between cities interested/engaged in this topic. To this end, the representatives of Como and Lecco (IT) and Leuven (BE) restorative cities propose to pursue the work of the Working Group on Restorative Cities. While the working topics of the next Working Group will be defined jointly with its new members, some initial proposals are:

• Creation of an online version of the Restorative Cities Travel Guide drafted by the previous Working Group to provide learning on how to build a restorative city to be published on the EFRJ website and websites of the Working Group members;
• Translation of the Travel Guide in the national languages of the Working Group members to ensure its accessibility at local level;
• Continuation of the learning exchange process with other restorative cities around the world to improve knowledge on how to deal with challenges to building restorative cities and update of the Travel Guide;
• Engagement of city representatives in the meetings of the Working Groups to bridge knowledge between practitioners and policymakers on restorative cities.
• Continuation of the monthly (online) meetings of the WG.

Profiles of potential members of this Working Group:

• EFRJ members engaged in existing Restorative Cities in Europe and beyond;
• EFRJ members initiating a cooperation with local municipalities to establish a Restorative City;
• EFRJ members experienced in restorative-oriented governance models and restorative practices aimed at encouraging citizens’ participation.

Proposers: Lucy Jaffe (Why me?, UK) and Miriam Attias (Depolarize.fi, Finland)

The Working Group on Violent Extremism worked between 2019-2022 with the aim of developing restorative justice practice, policy and training to address violent political acts and the impact of their harm. There was agreement that issues of hate crime and polarisation were also relevant, because of similar mechanisms, motivations and effects. Restorative justice ideals and values have great potential to address both hate crime and polarisation. It can also help to build secure, strong local communities and social cohesion, when it takes into account what is at stake for the different parties.

This Working Group will look for restorative justice experiences to better respond these type of conflicts, violence, and crimes. The purpose is to

• Take a systematic approach to understanding existing restorative approaches, research and practice to polarisation, hate crime and violent extremism in Europe;
• To develop proposals about what good practice looks like when addressing polarisation, hate crime and violent extremism with a potential for training products;
• To discuss and explore the unique dynamics of polarisation, hate crime and violent extremism, how it is related to power structures in society, and develop questions (and answers about how to move towards a restorative service of equality.

Some proposed concrete objectives to be achieved within the two year mandate are:

• To engage with organisations/ institutions beyond usual restorative justice networks (from high security prisons hosting people with radicalised behaviours to organisations working with migrants and refugees to faith institutions).
• To gather evidence about the justice needs for these different types of target groups and see if and how restorative justice could support.
• To engage with the restorative justice community and EFRJ members to gather evidence about profile and competence in these cases through calls for evidence and a roundtable.
• To publish report(s) for the EFRJ on good practice and policy recommendations
• To consider proposing a Summer School, or other training, focusing on how to address prejudice/ stigmatisation/ polarisation within restorative justice practices.

Profiles of potential members of this Working Group:

• EFRJ members working on violent extremism, terrorism, violent political acts.
• EFRJ members working on intercultural projects, faith NGOs, anti-hate organisations.
• EFRJ members who themselves are from marginalised communities targeted with hate crimes, in particular faith communities, black, Asian and non-dominant cultures within the EU, LGBTQ+, young people, transgender.
• EFRJ members with experience of using restorative (justice) practices to address polarisation, hate crime and/or violent extremism.

Proposers: Nino Shatberashvili (Ministry of Education and Science, Georgia) and Nina Wroldsen (Safe Learning, Norway)

The Working Group on Restorative Schools (2020-2022) was established by the motivated experts from the field. It aims to realize the supportive factors in the creation of the restorative practices in educational system to construct healthy school environment, positive relationships among pupils, pupils and teachers and respond effectively when they are damaged. There is a firm understanding that practicing such approaches results in the lessening of number of children in the state care and justice systems. The diverse composition of the Working Group served as good soil for information sharing, generation of new ideas, scrutinizing the potential of the restorative philosophy is diverse socio-cultural environment and educational heritage. The Working Group has mapped restorative school initiatives in the EU and non-EU countries accessible to its members and, by the end of 2022, it will publish a brief to explain the potential contribution of restorative practice in schools.

The new Working Group aims:

• To work on the development of a Restorative School Standards that can work as guiding principles for the educators, teachers, social workers, psychologists, and youth workers.
• To map restorative schools in Europe and realize how our group can give support;
• To support countries who are new to restorative and relation practice in schools offering resources and advice;
• To continue gathering a picture of what is happening in schools in European countries in relation to restorative and relational practice;
• To connect with other working groups, such as Restorative Cities, to ensure that we complement each other’s work;
• To continue developing useful resources on-line and enhance our on-line presence so that people can find us more easily;
• To develop and offer short training courses for people who want to work restoratively or support those in schools to do so;
• To encourage between schools and other stakeholders working to support young people (social workers; youth justice professionals; child and adolescent mental health workers and so forth);
• To organise on-line seminars, workshops and perhaps a conference specialising in school-focused.

Profiles of potential members of this Working Group:

• EFRJ members working in the field of education, such as school directors, teachers, mentors, etc.;
• EFRJ members conducting research on restorative practices with young people.

Proposers: Chiara Perini (University of Insubria, Italy) and Ivo Aertsen (KU Leuven, Belgium)

The extension of the Working Group on Environmental Restorative Justice (2020-2022) is needed because of its very promising perspectives. The former Working Group was composed by active members from various regions in the world. The new one wishes to further work on two priority areas: policy oriented work on the one hand, and test cases (or pilot cases) on the other one. The area of policy oriented work may be more self-evident and/or better defined (regulatory initiatives at EU, CoE and UN level) than working on test cases, but the latter is crucial in order to better understand the practical applicability of restorative justice. In order to facilitate this, the Working Group will finalise a “practice guide” on environmental restorative justice in the coming months. This practice guide must help organisations, including the membership of the EFRJ, to make the step towards this new field of practice. Regularly, the Working Group discovers new examples of how people try to work in a restorative way in cases of environmental harm. What is sure: more test cases are needed, in order to build sustainable restorative justice. This policy oriented work and study work on test cases will also result in further publications.

Profiles of potential members of this Working Group:

• EFRJ members engaged in practices and/or activist work in the field of environmental justice;
• EFRJ members conducting research and policy work in this field.

Proposers: Marie Keenan (University College Dublin, Ireland) and Valentina Bonini (University of Pisa, Italy)

The Working Group on Gender-Based Violence worked in 2020-2022. The need to relaunch it is for several reasons:

• The experience highlighted the extraordinary complexity of the theme as the multiple forms of gender-based violence and the different patterns with which it is perpetrated create different needs for victims and perpetrators.
• The topic is particularly alive, due to the EU initiative to adopt a Directive on violence against women and domestic violence, currently being revised, which has not been sufficiently open to restorative justice and its potential.
• There is a need to further investigate the various critical issues involved in restorative justice in response to gender-based violence to ensure that access is fully voluntary, participation is safe and free from any manipulation, the process is conducted by specialised facilitators with a high level of experience and following specific training on gender-based violence.
• A dedicated working group on this issue makes it easier to seek dialogue with European and national institutions, as well as with women's NGOs who have a predominantly sceptical attitude towards the use of restorative justice for these crimes.
• It could also inform specialist training on restorative justice and gender-based violence.

Profiles of potential members of this Working Group:

• EFRJ members with a high level of expertise in the subject or related ones (e.g. sexual violence, intimate partner violence, physical punishment, honour-based violence, or cooperating with gender-based violence victims’ groups) as the issues under consideration are complex and the  working group requires committed individuals who can work collaboratively to advance the area of influence and knowledge in Europe and at domestic levels.