| European Forum for Restorative Justice

Free e-learning

You are invited to participate in the free e-learning designed within the i-RESTORE project , available on the ChildHub Academy. Users must be logged in on ChildHub itself to access the Academy. This e-learning is a self-paced course consisting of reading materials, videos, case studies, quizzes and recommendations. A list of additional resources is provided at the end. It takes about 4-6 hours to complete, about 60-80 minutes per each of the 4 modules. Participants may take breaks and move in between the modules according to their own schedule. A certificate of participation is available after completion of the course.

If you wish to know more about the project and hear the voice of children engaged in i-RESTORE, watch the recordings of the final conference (4 Nov 2021).

Register here!

i-Restore is a project promoting the use of restorative justice in cases involving child victims by improving knowledge among national stakeholders on child-victim friendly restorative justice and empowering children to advocate for better protection of child victims.

Partners: Terre des hommes Greece, Terres des hommes Albania, Terre des hommes Romania, Restorative Justice Netherlands (RJN), European Forum for Restorative Justice (EFRJ).

Project coordinator: Terre des hommes Regional Office in Hungary: https://tdh-europe.org

Funding: With financial support of the European Commission.

Duration: 24 months

Summary: Many countries in Europe are still novice in terms of applying Restorative Justice as a conflict resolution mechanism in cases related to child victims. Restorative justice processes are at their early stage of development in many countries, and State and non-State practitioners need to build their capacities on how and when to adopt its approaches and mechanisms.
Moreover, the views of children and young people are not taken into consideration for deciding on issues affecting them. Their voices need to be heard and greater opportunities provided to them to share experiences and inputs for the development of transformative policies and programmes related to justice for children.
In this context, i-RESTORE proposes to offer opportunities for professionals to learn from each other, and to ensure that restorative justice fully respect the rights of child victims. It will do this by using a holistic and participative approach.

Some of the objectives are:

Identify gaps and synergies in relation to applying restorative justice in cases involving child victims, by conducting a comparative review of current laws, policies, strategies, practices, capacities, researches and initiatives related to restorative justice in the target countries, in order to:
a. highlight (in)consistencies with international and European standards and practices applicable to the protection of the rights of child victims;
b. highlight opportunities and existing best practices involving child victims; and c. have a clearer picture of what information has been shared with policy makers and practitioners, and how we can capitalize on existing initiatives to support restorative justice.
Collect information from policy makers and practitioners in criminal justice about their level of understanding about the position of child victims in restorative justice.
Empower children to advocate for better protection of child victims in restorative justice, including in cases related to emerging forms of child abuse and violence perpetrated online and among peers.
Build the capacities and foster mutual learning amongst national policy makers and practitioners in criminal justice to implement child-victim-friendly restorative justice approaches and mechanisms, through face-to-face and e-learning training material.
Raise awareness and advocate for child-sensitive restorative justice approaches in cases involving child victims, through campaigns, written and video information material produced with children aged 12-18 years old, and regional advocacy events.

Timeline of public activities of i-RESTORE

On 20 November 2020, during the international Restorative Justice Week 2020, World Children's Day, the i-RESTORE project team launched a save the date to join two special milestones of this EU-funded project on restorative justice and child victims.

On 10 December 2020, Human Rights Day, the global research report and 3 national reports (Albania, Romania, Greece) were launched . Scroll down to download them!

On 21 January 2021 (14.00h CET) the project team organised a virtual Q&A session with the authors of the i-RESTORE research on the application of restorative justice in cases involving child victims in Albania, Greece & Romania. Download the flyer here. Watch the videorecordings of the Q&A session here.

On 21 May 2021 (13-17h CEST) the project team organised an European conference on child-friendly justice. Among the speakers, children from the i-RESTORE Child Advisory Boards will shared their views on restorative justice and how it can be benefit child justice systems. Our chair Tim Chapman will present on behalf of the EFRJ. Watch the videorecordings of the European conference here.

On 27 July 2021 (9-12am CEST), the i-Restore team organises an online advocacy event to share experiences from the project and to promote the use of restorative justice for the protection and empowerment of children victims of crime. The speakers will be EFRJ members, chosen from project's RJ Advisory Group: Bie Vanseveren, Maartje Berger, and Silvia Randazzo. Download the agenda here. Watch the videorecordings of the advocacy event here.

On 4 November 2021 (14.30-18h CET), the i-RESTORE team organised online the closing conference of the project. Among the speakers, our dear Tali Gal (Head of the School of Criminology in Haifa, Israel) presented on the needs-rights model to protect and empower children in contact with the justice system. Another session was led by young people who participated in the Child Advisory Boards in the target countries of this project, i.e. Albania, Greece and Romania. Watch here the recordings and the materials produced by children.

On 10-12 November 2021 (afternoons) the EFRJ hired two trainers to deliver a training on restorative justice with children. The activities are part of a training module developed by Bie Vanseveren and Lynn Gastmans for the i-RESTORE project.

On 17 November 2021 (18h CET), Emanuela Biffi and Annemieke Wolthuis delivered the i-RESTORE training at the World Congress on Justice With Children.

Documents

The downloadable pdfs include:

the European research report with an overview of the state f the art in terms of restorative justice with children at the international level (zoom in on Europe, Albania, Greece, Romania)
a list of key concepts and frequently asked questions on restorative justice and child victims, prepared by the EFRJ and Tdh
the three national research reports from Albania, Greece and Romania (in English and translated)
the flyer with upcoming events of the project (10 December 2020 and 21 January 2021)