Edit (Hungary) studied law at the ELTE University Budapest, where she later followed the PhD programme in the field of Criminology. She also has a degree in European and French Law from Université Panthéon-Assas in Paris (France). From 2004 she worked for the Hungarian Probation Service and from 2006 was responsible for the field of victim-offender mediation. She is a trained mediator and facilitator of restorative conferences and she almost completed a 4-year programme in dance therapy. She joined the EFRJ in February 2012 as a project officer in the project ‘ALTERNATIVE’ on RJ in intercultural settings and since 2016 she is the Executive Director of the EFRJ.

 +32 (0)488690479  / edit.torzs@euforumrj.org

Emanuela (Italy) studied Liberal Arts at the University College Maastricht (The Netherlands) and University of Gaborone (Botswana) with a focus on social psychology and criminal law and the Master programme in Criminology at KU Leuven (Belgium). Previously, she studied in a maritime institute and worked in several sailing yachts navigating the Mediterranean sea, French Polynesia and the Caribe. She joined the EFRJ team in September 2013, mostly working as a project officer in different EU-funded projects on access to restorative justice (Accessibility), on justice and security in intercultural settings (ALTERNATIVE), on restorative justice training (KINTSUGI, MEDIAREJ, PROTECT), on child victims (i-RESTORE) and on arts (TPP). She also worked as a researcher for the KU Leuven Institute of Criminology in a project on the implementation of the EU Victims' Directive (IVOR). In 2016-2019 she managed communications and events at the EFRJ. Since 2020 she focuses on (research) projects. She cooperated with the Radicalisation Awareness Network for organising events and publishing papers on restorative justice in cases of violent extremism and terrorism.

+32 (0)466 209112 / emanuela.biffi@euforumrj.org

Laura (Italy) studied Political Science at the University of Bologna with a focus on international and European human rights law and case law. She has extended professional experiences as project and policy officer working with NGOs in the field of development and cooperation, migrant’s rights, anti-discrimination and conflict resolution. She also researched and worked in the field, mainly in Latin America. In 2016, she joined the KU Leuven’s research team in Transitional Justice and Human Rights in the implementation of academic activities and, in March 2018, she started her PhD in Criminology. She joined our team in May 2018 to contribute to the development and implementation of the organisation’s policy and advocacy work. She has a keen interest in policy related issues and in further explore the links between restorative and transitional justice.

+32 (0)489 970881 /  laura.hein@euforumrj.org

Bálint (Hungary) has been working extensively with education and training programmes, cultural project management and theatre internationally. Previously, he was the educational programme manager of the performing arts company, Krétakör. He led Krétakör Free School, a democracy awareness programme for students. He has experience in working with marginalised groups of society. In Brussels, he led community theatre workshops for vulnerable families. He holds a degree of Literature and Linguistics from ELTE University Budapest and completed a Master in Education with a focus on drama at Trinity College Dublin. He joined the EFRJ in 2019 to contribute to the organisation’s training development and communication.

+32 (0)483 388724 /  balint.juhasz@euforumrj.org

Zsófi (Hungary) studied economy at the Corvinus University of Budapest. She worked 10 years in various functions in multinational companies, from the financial to the logistics sector, both in Hungary and in Belgium. After a few years of detour in the green sector – she loves nature and plants – she returned to her initial interest in finances thus filling the role of Finance and Administration Officer of the EFRJ.

zsofia.anda@euforumrj.org

Georgina (Spain) studied Criminology at the University of Barcelona, and the MSc programme in Criminology at KU Leuven with a focus on international and EU policy developments in the areas of criminal justice and cross-border crime. She developed a growing interest for restorative justice through her master. In her thesis, she conducted a discourse analysis of the main international restorative justice policy documents from the Council of Europe, the United Nations and European Union. She is a Researcher and Teaching Assistant at KU Leuven's Instiute of Criminilogy (LINC). 
She has a keen interest in EU policy related issues, alternative means of conflict resolution, juvenile justice, and gender related issues. Between 2020-2021 she worked the EFRJ as a Policy Intern, and in 2023 she joined the Secretariat again as the Project Officer of the i-Restore 2.0. 

Francesca (Italy) studied “International Relations and Global Affairs” at UCSC of Milan and is currently enrolled at Università di Bologna in the Master’s of “Criminological Sciences for Investigation and Security”. During her studies she developed her interest for the intersection between political and institutional crimes both from transitional and restorative justice perspectives, which is why she decided to come to Leuven to carry out research on the Belgian responses to sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. Her interests also cover gender-based and domestic violence, a topic she explored and dealt with during her internship in Tanzania last summer, where she was working in projects of community psychology and women empowerment. With the internship at the EFRJ she hopes to deepen her knowledge and become part of the international community working around restorative justice.   

francesca.pecorari3@studio.unibo.it

Barbara (Slovakia) graduated from Leiden University in The Hague with a Bachelor's degree in Security Studies, with a minor in Criminology from Utrecht University. She recently completed her Master's in Crisis and Security Management from Leiden University, specialising in radicalism, extremism, and terrorism. Currently, she is finalising her second Master's at Leiden Law School in Comparative Criminal Justice. During her studies, she became intrigued by underlying mechanisms of crime (such as classism, patriarchy, racial prejudice, or social injustice) and crimes motivated by hatred towards the most marginalised groups of society. She has also become more interested in restorative justice practices, especially in the context of preventing hate crimes, radicalism, and (violent) extremism. Previously, she has worked as a student ambassador and research assistant, working closely with university staff, professors, and other students, which deepened her passion for academia and research. In the future, she intends to pursue a PhD in Criminology.

Federica (Italy) graduated from Università La Sapienza in Rome with a degree in Law and is currently enrolled at Università La Sapienza in the “Criminology and Forensic Sciences” Master. Her thesis research focused on restorative justice in the criminal system in Italy and, through that, she started to be interested in the subject and applied for the EFRJ internship. In Rome she volunteers for an association which offers free legal advice to prisoners and has meetings with them to find solutions for problems related to their imprisonment, such as health or work issues. With the EFRJ internship she is widening her knowledge on restorative justice in Europe, focusing on its application on criminal justice, victim’s rights and prisons, to take part to the international community in the field and to promote the development of the Italian one.

Contact: maggio.federica99@gmail.com