The Evolution of Restorative Justice in Slovakia in the Last Decades

Restorative justice in Slovakia has been undergoing slight, tiny changes since 2004, when the Act No. 550/2003 Coll. on Probation and Mediation officers was introduced. These changes did not correspond with the needs of application practice. The year 2006 was significant from the perspective of the revision of the legislative acts in the criminal law field. Consequently, in 2008 we saw a decrease in the number of Probation and Mediation Officers. This stagnation in the application of probation and mediation, because prosecutors/judges found it administratively burdensome and time-consuming to refer cases to Victim-Offender Mediation (VOM) compared to the traditional criminal justice system, has had a negative impact on the shapes and methods of the work, which were limited to the basic formal procedures of Probation and Mediation Officers.

This status quo did not change until 31st December 2022, when four new Probation and Mediation Officers (that is, specialists in victim-offender mediation) were hired. One probation and mediation officer carries out both probation and mediation (plus electronic monitoring) apart from the four specialists who are facilitating only VOM and other restorative justice programmes, for example, restorative meetings within prison; they no longer serve as probation officers compared to others who have not yet qualified as specialists.

This increase in specialists was a part of the successful project implemented in Slovakia from December 2020 to June 2023. This project, called ‘Building and empowering Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) through mediation and the effective use of restorative justice values in the Slovak Republic,’ has been a benefit for all the restorative justice services in Slovakia. The main task of the national project has been to strengthen and make more effective the core principles of restorative justice and diversion measures in criminal proceedings. One of the main outcomes of this project was to separate the field of mediation and the field of probation and to assign the cases to the probation and mediation officer according to his/her specialisation. This has already begun in the Žilina region, Slovakia, where the first specialists on mediation in criminal matters were hired on 1 January 2023. The main interest of the Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Ministry’) is gradually to continue with this specialisation at other regional courts as well.

A restorative justice programme, depending on the country in which it is applied, is any programme that uses restorative processes. In European countries, different models are used (for example, victim-offender mediation, restorative conferences, circles). Restorative justice programmes in Slovakia, which are provided by the Probation and Mediation service, are applied through victim-offender mediation in penal matters. Currently, our criminal law talks about the possibility of using mediation, especially in connection with so-called diversion in criminal proceedings, such as conditional suspension of the criminal proceedings and reconciliation. Of course, the concepts of VOM and diversion in criminal proceedings must be clearly distinguished.

The aim of VOM — as a restorative programme — is effectively to settle or at least mitigate the conflict situation associated with the crime and to eliminate, correct or alleviate its consequences. The main goal of VOM, which is currently the only legally embedded restorative justice programme linked to the criminal justice system, is to put things in order. Currently, mediation is understood as a specific Alternative Dispute Resolution method for solving criminal activity, which fulfils the concept of modern restorative justice in cases of less severe crimes with a less serious impact that are the result of a conflict relationship between the perpetrator of the crime and a concrete person (victim) who has been harmed by the offender.

The legal framework, on the basis of which a criminal matter can be discussed in a mediation process without the need to file an indictment by the prosecutor and regardless of the seriousness of the crime/misdemeanour, is enshrined in Act No. 550/2003 Coll. on Probation and Mediation Officers. The probation and mediation officer has, in addition to the above-mentioned special reasons, the possibility of taking action aimed at finding an agreement between the victim and the offender on compensation for damages caused by a criminal offence or for the purpose of repairing harm caused by a criminal offence. Naturally, harm is understood as a broader concept and it is possible to ‘repair’ the harm by other means than just by financially compensating the victim, for example, by restitution or by doing community service. However financial compensation is (statistically speaking) the most common agreement between the parties as a result of VOM. 

This will mainly concern cases where the proposal for VOM comes directly from the perpetrator, victim or parent, and the probation and mediation officer is obliged to inform the relevant investigator, prosecutor or court about this procedure without undue delay, depending on the stage of the criminal proceedings. However, in order for the VOM process itself to take place at all, the written consent of the chairman of the senate or the judge in the proceedings before the court and the written consent of the prosecutor in the preliminary criminal proceedings are required.

Restorative justice programmes and their application after a court decision can take place if it is not only a less severe crime, but also a more serious one. In this case, the initiator of the restorative/facilitative process can be not only the victim, but also the convicted offender. In these cases, the consent of the prosecutor or the court is not required. The consent of the director of the prison is sufficient for entering the prison and bringing the convicted person before the mediator/facilitator if the offender is serving a prison sentence. We consider it very important that this process be carried out by a probation and mediation officer who has completed special training aimed at performing restorative meetings in cases of serious criminal activity, or criminal activity with a serious impact. An important moment for this process will be the development of a methodological manual for a restorative programme, which will be linked to the activity of the probation and mediation officer as a facilitator in such cases, including instructions on how to proceed in cases not only after the conviction of the perpetrator of a crime, but also after his potential custodial release.

The Ministry together with the Czech Institute for Restorative Justice participates on the basis of a partnership agreement in the work of the JUSTIN Erasmus+ project, the aim of which is to highlight the possibility of using restorative programmes in the context of criminal activity with a serious impact within the project activities and thus build a broader understanding of the issue on the part of the professional as well as the lay public. One of the project activities was an introductory seminar, at which reports were presented on the state of restorative processes in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and good practice, but also challenges and needs for system solutions. 

In addition to the above, other project activities included a field study trip to RISE: Prison and Probation Service of Finland. Subsequently, with the participation of foreign lecturers from the Belgian organisation moderator and the Finnish organisation RISE, professional training focused on the use of restorative meetings in cases of serious crime took place in Prague. The training in question was organised and taught by the Czech Institute for Restorative Justice. Seven probation and mediation officers participated in the educational activity for the Slovak Republic, who became the first ever specialists in the introduction of a pilot restorative program in Slovakia with an emphasis on serious crime. 

The Ministry organised, in cooperation with the Commenius University, Faculty of Law in Bratislava, an international dissemination conference entitled ‘Restorative meeting in serious crime cases.’ The conference took place on December 4, 2023 in Bratislava, Slovakia at the Faculty of Law of the Commenius University, with the participation of both domestic as well as foreign university students, academics and practitioners working in the field of victim-offender mediation and restorative justice. The final output of the project was the creation of an educational manual called Manual for Restorative Meetings in Cases of Serious Crime, which had been presented at the panel discussion during the time of the conference, and which will become a basic educational tool for future specialists who will experience the birth of the new restorative program focused on serious harm and actively promote the vision that every person should have the right to access high-quality restorative justice services at any stage of the criminal proceedings (even the post-conviction stage) and regardless of the harm caused and the degree of seriousness of the crime committed.

Tomáš Horeháj works at the Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic, as well as a specialist in criminal law.

Contact: tomas.horehaj1@justice.sk