Detail of Maria Lai's tree - poster image of the conference

Sassari 2022

11th international conference of the European Forum for Restorative Justice
Sassari - Italy, 23-25 June 2022 (postponed from June 2020)

“Under the auspices of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Ms Marija Pejčinović Burić”.

The 11th international conference of the European Forum for Restorative Justice (EFRJ) entitled "Justice beyond borders: Restorative connections through space and language" takes place in the island of Sardinia. The choice of the location (in late 2018) is not coincidental. The Mediterranean sea has always been a place of encounters, exchange, and hospitality, but also of conflict, clashes, and confrontation. The sea, apparently infinite and without borders, enabled human beings to travel towards places where they encountered natural, social and political borders.

It is the liminal metaphors of borders, boundaries, and frontiers that will inspire and challenge us throughout our 3-day event. Our main focus is understanding together the way in which restorative approaches can contribute towards undoing suffering and injustices that are experienced by people because of physical, economic, cultural, political and social borders. Only by getting closer to limits, can we re-examine identities, transcend constructed barriers and discover new ways to embrace diversity and live together at peace.

This conference was originally planned in June 2020, postponed to 2022 because of the Covid-19 pandemic. 2020 marked the 20th anniversary of the EFRJ and 2022 represents the first time we will meet again after two exceptional years. Restorative justice itself has come of age, it is part of a larger ecosystem and it continued to grow and evolve also in times of the pandemic. In light of modern global challenges, we want to understand also the way in which the restorative justice community challenges its own borders, discovers new spaces and forms of practice and overcomes language and cultural barriers.

If you wish to make full use of your trip to Sassari, you may register also to the pre-conference training (21-22 June).

Download here the booklet with programme of the week.

***If you are a conference participant, you do not have to print the booklet: you will receive it in Sassari at the registration desk.***

Date

Start
End

Address

Piazzale Cappuccini 1
07100 Sassari
Italy

Details

The conference is mostly hosted in the Conservatorio di Musica Luigi Canepa, the music conservatory at the University of Sassari.  The venue may change to comply to the most recent Covid-19 sanitary measures. For example, some parallel workshops may take place in public spaces or in other indoor rooms authorised by the city. About one week before travelling, you may take this Italian survey to establish what rules apply to your individual situation (please note that rules change on a regular basis). For more info on the COVID-19 measures in Italy, click here.

Follow the event on social media with #efrjConference. For organising your trip to Sassari check the practical info sheet here.

Poster conference Sassari 2022

SPEAKERS

For the EFRJ conference in Sassari, we invited internationally renowned keynote speakers:

  • Giovanni Grandi – Associate Professor at University of Trieste (Italy)
  • Marie Keenan – Associate Professor at the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, University College Dublin (Ireland)
  • Ailbhe Griffith - Restorative Justice Advocate (Ireland)
  • Dominic Barter – International consultant on Nonviolent Communication and Restorative Practices (Brazil)
  • The Encounter of the Encounters - Witnesses of  the restorative encounters in cases of political violence (Basque Country, Italy and Northern Ireland)

Click here to download the booklet.

PROGRAMME

In order to plan your trip accordingly, please find below a draft agenda of the 3 day conference (incl. Annual General Meeting of the EFRJ membership). As usual, the EFRJ conference includes plenary sessions and about 10-12 parallel workshop sessions, as well as social moments and local field trips. Download the booklet here.

Tue 21/6 Wed 22/6 Thu 23/6 Fri 24/6 Sat 25/6
9-17 Preconference training*

9-13 Preconference training*

17-19 AGM

19-19.30 European RJ Award Ceremony

19.30-20.30 Reception

9-17.30 Conference

18.30-19.30 Testimonial

20-21 Aperitive

9-17.30 Conference

 

20.00-23.00 Social dinner

9-13 Conference

 

14-18/22 Field trips**

*The focus of this 1,5 day training is on methods to support restorative justice practitioners in engaging into dialogue with different groups, for a justice beyond language borders. An additional fee will be asked to attend this event.

**As usual, the programme of the EFRJ conference includes some local field trips planned, most probably in the restorative city of Tempio Pausania, the prison of Nuchis, the juvenile institution in Sassari and in the RJ centre of Nuoro. This is subject to change, depending on the Covid-19 measures in June 2022.

THEMES OF THE WORKSHOPS

Space and Time

This theme focuses on space and time, either literally or figuratively conceived. We invite presentations that address and respond to these themes from various angles. Some examples could be:

  • Restorative justice and closed institutions: How can restorative justice be conceived and done in prisons, centers for undocumented migrants, psychiatric hospitals, drug rehabilitation units, etc.? How can restorative spaces be created in oppressive spaces? How can restorative justice in such institutions contribute to make the bridge with the outside world?
  • Restorative approaches in urban contexts: How can we create and sustain restorative cities? How to stage restorative justice in urban settings? How can buildings and borders reflect restorative values in order to shape  and support people’s relationships and connections?
  • Restorative justice and space: How can we think about restorative design? What is the role of design and architecture to create spaces of (restorative) justice?
  • Restorative approaches in educational settings: How does a school become a restorative space? How does a school become a place  for building restorative relationships?
  • Restorative justice and relational borders: How can restorative processes acknowledge class, gender, generational, religious, national, and racial differences, while at the same time undoing and transforming relations of oppression?
  • Boundaries in restorative processes: What boundaries are appropriate between stakeholders, and between practitioners and stakeholders? How to turn restorative justice into an ordinary day to day practice?
  • Restorative justice and time: How can we conceive of the notion of restoring the future by generating new meanings or memories of the past? How can we engage in intergenerational or historical forms of conflict? When is the ‘right time’ of repair?
  • Restorative justice and criminal justice: How can we create distance and proximity with the criminal justice system? How can different uses of “time” be adjusted in both systems? How can we align spaces? How to use restorative justice in cases of cross border crimes?
  • Restorative justice in the cyber-world: How can restorative justice practices adapt to online settings? What lessons have been learnt during the Covid-19 lockdowns? How can restorative justice serve the needs of those involved in cyber-crimes?

Language and Narratives

This theme focuses on language and narratives. We invite presentations that address and respond to these themes from various angles. Some examples could be:

  • Restorative justice across languages: How does the word “restorative” translate in different languages and does it retain the same meaning in all cultures? What is the meaning of this word and its roots? Why do English speaking countries refer to restorative justice while so many other countries stick with penal mediation?
  • Restorative justice beyond language: Do all participants understand words in the same way? How can people with different verbal and cognitive abilities be supported to participate actively in a process dominated by verbal communication?
  • Restorative justice across borders: How do key restorative justice values and principles travel across cultural and relational borders? What is the role of restorative justice to undo borders?
  • Restorative language and narratives: What are words that polarise (e.g. victim-offender labels), and which words restorative justice should cultivate?
  • Restorative justice practices: Is the “script” really restorative? How can restorative justice be integrated and complement other practices (e.g. therapy)?  What practices have been useful to support citizens during the Covid-19 pandemic?
  • Beyond restorative justice practices: What innovative non-verbal communication practices are emerging to engage people in dialogue (rituals, song writing, storytelling, drawing, movement, painting, gift making, diaries, letters)? How to connect with practices sharing the same restorative justice goals and values but not necessarily following the “restorative justice rules”?
  • Restorative justice testimonies: What can we learn from experiences of practitioners and restorative justice ambassadors? What successful and unsuccessful stories can be shared from the field to further ameliorate restorative justice practices?

ORGANISERS AND SPONSORS

The EFRJ traditionally co-organises its conferences with its local members. In Italy, we have the chance to work with EFRJ members from the Uniss Team delle Pratiche di Giustizia RiparativaTempio Pausania Città Riparativa and PsicoIus Scuola romana di psicologia giuridica. The core team is composed by Prof. Patrizia Patrizi (EFRJ Board), Ernesto Lodi and Gian Luigi Lepri, and it actively cooperates with several other active EFRJ members in Italy.

Our conference is financially supported by the Justice Programme of the European Commission and we are delighted to get additional financial or in kind support, or bursaries for experts to attend the conference (e.g. Alta Scuola Federico Stella in Milan).

The Conference has been granted the patronage of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Ms Marija Pejčinović Burić.

 

 

REGISTRATION FEES

The income made through EFRJ events serves to support the overall activities of the organization throughout the year. In the past years the EFRJ has tried to find different ways to make its events more inclusive (for example by proposing the “Pay-What-You-Can” model or granting waivers to the fees).

The fees listed below are an average fee (calculated for 180 paying participants) to cover the costs for the 3-day conference (including one social dinner and one local field visit),  the opening reception (after the AGM) and the 2022 European RJ Award ceremony. Costs include the rental of the venue; the travel, accommodation and food of keynote speakers and EFRJ organizing team; printed and other materials disseminated in the conference bag; lunch and coffee breaks and one social dinner.

As usual, EFRJ members will benefit from a special rate (100 EUR cheaper). This automatic discount is available once you login to the website with your credentials. Make sure you join or renew your membership in 2022 to get the automatic discount. If you face issues to login, or if you have doubts about your membership, or if you are an organisational member willing to register more employees, please contact Rik Defrere. 

You are invited to register with the average fee. If you are able and wish to contribute with the solidarity fee, supporting others to pay a lower fee, you can apply the code Sassari_solidarity: this will add 20% extra to the average fee – we really appreciate your support. If you wish to donate more, please get in touch!
If the average fee is too high for you, use the discount code Sassari_reduced, without giving any explanation, and pay the reduced fee: this will give you a 20% discount to the applicable fee.
If even the reduced fee is an obstacle for you to participate, you have time until 1 March to submit a waiver application form (see details below).

  EARLY BIRD

until 15 April

AFTER 15 APRIL

until 30 May

ONE DAY FEE

until 30 May

CONFERENCE + TRAINING*
until 30 May

EFRJ member** 230 € 320 € 130 € More info here
Non-EFRJ member 330 € 420 € 230 € More info here
EFRJ member- student*** 160 € n.a. n.a. n.a.

*In addition to the EFRJ Conference, participants can register to the training course “Restorative practices beyond borders”. Note that this event if offered as a conference package, thus you should register to both. Contact Balint Juhasz for more info.
**Login to the website with your member's credentials to receive the automatic discount. Click here to know more about the EFRJ membership, or get in touch with Rik Defrere.
***Students below 27 years old who are members of the EFRJ since June 2021 or earlier can benefit of a special fee. First comes, first served- policy applies for maximum 10 students (until 15 April)!

Please note that the registration is complete only once the payment is received. Online payment (e.g. via credit card, PayPal, iDeal, Bancontact) will be processed by the secure online payment provider Mollie. If you wish to pay via bank transfer, please use the bank details below (subject line: Sassari 2022 + Your Full Name) and make the payment within 3 working days after your registration. In case of international payments, please indicate ‘Shared Costs (SHA)’ to distribute the costs.

European Forum for Restorative Justice
IBAN: BE35 4310 7636 5137
BIC KREDBEBB
KBC Bank, Havenlaan 2, 1080 Brussels

By the beginning of June, registered participants will be asked to confirm their participation to the side events related to the Conference (e.g. Annual General Meeting, reception and European Restorative Justice Award ceremony, local tours, social dinner).

Cancellation policy: If you cancel your registration to the Conference before 25 April 2022, you will receive a refund of 70% of your registration fee. After this date, reimbursement is no longer possible. This cancellation policy includes possible travel bans to Italy due to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, with the only exception that the deadline for cancellation is postponed to 7 June 2022 for those participants who can submit official documents proving that their cancellation is due to a travel ban. The EFRJ is not responsible for other costs due to a possible travel ban: we advise that you ensure that your travel bookings, such as flights and accommodation, include cancellation policies. The current policy of the EFRJ is to continue with the conference, but if the EFRJ will be obliged to cancel the full event due to circumstances out of our control (i.e. due to bans from Sardinia, Italy or EC), you will receive a 100% refund of the registration fee.  

 

PRACTICALITIES

COVID-19 RULES >>> Before travelling to Italy in June 2022, you may take this Italian survey to establish what rules apply to your individual situation (please note that rules change on a regular basis, thus take the survey about one week prior to your trip). For more details on the COVID-19 measures in Italy, click here.

TRANSPORT >>> You may travel to the island of Sardinia by plane or boat and use buses and trains for the rest of the trip. In order to be more environmentally friendly, some EFRJ members are planning their trip via land (with trains, buses) and sea (via ferry) from different parts of Europe. Click  here to know more.


ACCOMODATION >>> Sassari offers a variety of different accommodation options (see for example www.booking.com, www.airbnb.com). The EFRJ organising team and plenary speakers will be staying in the Hotel Leonardo da Vinci. Find below some offers from different hotels in the area: more options can be found here. Please note that to have the agreed special price you must write an email directly to the hotel (and do not make the reservation via portals like Booking.com!).

Address

Hotel Vittorio Emanuele

Corso Vittorio Emanuele 100

Hotel Grazia Deledda

Viale Dante 47

Hotel Leonardo Da Vinci

Via Roma 79

Distance from conservatory

10 min walk (850 mt)

23 min walk (1.8 km)

20 min walk (1.5 km)

Contact details

booking@hotelvittorioamanuele.ss.it reservation@hotelvittorioemanuele.ss.it

info@hotelgraziadeledda.it

info@leonardodavincihotel.it

Discount code

EuropeanForum2022/06

EUROPEAN FORUM

EFRJ22

Prices (per person/night) include breakfast and city tax

45 EUR (one-person bed)

52 EUR (one-and-half person bed)

55 EUR (two persons bed)

57 EUR (one-and-half person bed)

62 EUR (two persons bed)

51-62 EUR (two persons bed)

Here you find more information about transports, restaurants and list of hotels you may contact to book your stay in Sassari at a special rate during the conference days. Note that these rates may have changes since 2020.

The MichaelDouglas Kollektiv (Germany) and its participatory choreographic event “The Polarity Party” will also travel to Sassari this summer! This immersive public event will be offered to all local and conference participants for free but registration is needed here. The performance uses movement, perception, and dialogue to enable a process of collective thinking dedicated to challenges that are key in our societies such as polarisation.

Sassari 2020 >>> Sassari 2022

Covid-19 changes of plans

The 11th international conference of the EFRJ was originally  planned on  25-27 June 2020. The EFRJ Board and Secretariat, in collaboration with the local organising team from Sassari University, decided to postpone the event to 24-26 June 2021 (read more about the first postponement) and then to 23-25 June 2022 (and after consulting the EFRJ membership through a survey).  We wish to honour the work done until now by the Team delle Pratiche di Giustizia Ristorativa in Sassari University and give you all the opportunity to join this event whenever possible!

Download here the draft programme (of the 2020's conference) to have an idea about the full event: we cannot promise the same in 2022,  but we will try our best to keep this experience as unique as usual! Also, you may look at the programme of the virtual symposium "Restorative Justice Over Distance" organised on 21-25 June 2021 (the conference week) that was put together thanks to the abstracts submitted for the conference (see the call here).