Working Group on Hate, Polarisation and Violent Extremism

This working group will look for restorative justice experiences to better respond to these types of conflicts/ violence/ crimes: polarisation, hate crime and violent extremism. 

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 (and beyond);
• Develop proposals about what good practice looks like when addressing polarisation, hate crime and violent extremism (with a potential for designing training products);

Discuss and explore the unique dynamics of hate crime, polarisation 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.

This working group will:

1. Engage with organisations/ institutions beyond usual RJ networks (from high security prisons hosting people with radicalised behaviors to organisations working with migrants and refugees to faith institutions).
2. Gather evidence about the justice needs for these different types of target groups and see if and how RJ could support.
3. Engage with RJ community and EFRJ members to gather evidence about profile and competence in these cases through calls for evidence and roundtables.
4. Publish report(s) for the EFRJ on good practice and policy recommendations.
5. Consider proposing a training programme (e.g. Summer School or a course within the Winter Academy, or online), focusing on how to address prejudice/ stigmatisation/ polarisation within RJ practices to prevent acts of extreme violence from occurring.

This survey aims to map the knowledge, skills, and needs of restorative justice practitioners in the context of hate crime and systemic violence. Its findings will help inform the EFRJ and its membership, particularly organisational members, on actions to prevent systemic violence and to challenge societal structures in a restorative way. The results will be used to design activities and materials for the EFRJ, such as training programmes and thematic papers.

We look for responses from all professionals (from practice, academia, policy, etc.) within the EFRJ membership that may have experience on these topics. All responses will be kept confidential. The deadline to respond is 13 October 2024. It will take about 15-20 minutes to complete the survey.

• Clair Aldington, Scotland
• Emanuelle Crane, France
• Anne Lemonne, Belgium
• Maria Cielo Linares, Colombia
• Monica Morris, UK
• Rebecca Spencer-Smith, UK
• Elena Vasconcellos Funcia Lemme, Brazil
• Gaetane Zeegers, Belgium

Chair: Miriam Attias, Finland
Vice-chair: Lucy Jaffe, UK
Secretariat representative: Emanuela Biffi, programme coordinator
Board representative: Lucy Jaffe, UK

The Working Group on Violent Extremism (2019-2022) worked together for almost 3 years, including the challenging years of the Covid-19 pandemic, when face-to-face meetings where prohibited. The topic was launched by the EFRJ Secretariat and Board because of the increasing practices and research in terms of restorative justice in cases of violent extremism, terrorism, political violence and radicalisation. Some of the group members (i.e. Lucy Jaffe and Miriam Attias) proposed to continue this work enralrging it also to the phases prior to the actual acts of extreme violence, such as polarisation and hate. A call for members was launched at the end of 2022 o establish the new Working Group on Hate, Polarisation and Violent Extremism, with a two year mandate (2023-2024).