Working Group on Gender-Based Violence

Gender-based violence is a phenomenon deeply rooted in gender inequality, and continues to be one of the most notable human rights violations within all societies. Physical, sexual, psychological or economic harm, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life are some examples.
Gender-based violence often occurs within a relational context and it strengthens discourses and dynamics that criminal justice systems fail to take into consideration as well as the overall experience of the parties involved. Many cases of gender-based violence are never reported to the authorities and even less reach the criminal justice system as a large number of victims prefer to keep private about the situation. This is why more awareness-raising initiatives and alternative justice engagement and support are needed.
EFRJ recognises and respects the concerns that many people have over restorative responses to gender-based violence. There are real risks of victimisation due to imbalances of power and control. Such violence is often deeply traumatic for the victim. This working group will be addressing these challenges in several ways.

This is the third term of a working group on this topic, however, we believe it is important to keep the momentum on this very important and timely issue. In many countries in Europe and beyond, despite the lack of adequate responses to survivors of gender based violence and the evidence that survivors want to have access, there are continuous resistances to the use of restorative justice to improve those responses. This is mainly due to the many misconceptions and misunderstandings around the application of restorative justice to these cases.
This working group has in the past achieved a number of important outcomes (publications, guides, events, consultancy), but we believe it is crucial for work to keep going to enable some projects to continue and new ones to be started to enable a better understanding among the general public, NGOs and others. 

Gender-based violence is a phenomenon deeply rooted in gender inequality, and continues to be one of the most notable human rights violations within all societies. Physical, sexual, psychological or economic harm, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life are some examples.
Gender-based violence often occurs within a relational context and it strengthens discourses and dynamics that criminal justice system fails to take into consideration as well as the overall experience of the parties involved. Also, only a few cases of gender-based violence are reported to the authorities and even less reach the criminal justice system as a large number of victims prefer to keep private about the situation. This is why more awareness-raising initiatives and alternative justice engagement and support are needed.
EFRJ recognises and respects the concerns that many people have over restorative responses to gender-based violence. There are real risks of victimisation due to imbalances of power and control. Such violence is often deeply traumatic for the victim. This working group will be responsible for addressing these challenges and developing models of restorative justice, which are safe, anti- oppressive and effective.

January 2025 - June 2027

• Annegrete Johanson, Estonia (co-chair and board member)
• Arti Mohan, India 
• Briana Barocas, USA
• Catharina Borchgrevink, Norway (chair)
• Emeline le Prince, 
• Estelle Zinsstag, Scotland
• Fernanda Fonseca Rosenblatt, Brazil 
• Gael Susanna Cochrane, Scotland
• Gabor Hera, Hungary
• Georgia Robertson
• Iro Michael, Cyprus
• Karin Sten Madsen, Denmark
• Roberta Schaller, Switzerland
• Tim Chapman, Northern Ireland 
• Virginia Domingo de la Fuente, Spain
• Secretariat Representative: Laura Hein, EFRJ Policy Officer

The group is currently discussing concrete outcomes and goals, and will update this site when the work plan is finished. 
The working group is made up of dedicated experts in the field from different countries, which makes for a truly enriching experience by sharing knowledge across countries. There is also a desire to share more of the group's knowledge and experience outside the working group in the coming years, and the working group wants to focus more on reaching out to stakeholders within and without the restorative justice community. 
In general, it will certainly be important to continue to raise awareness on gender based violence and restorative justice, to engage stakeholders in each country and in the larger European context. We would like to explore more outreaching activities in this term, for example by holding webinars/seminars, and/or writing academic articles as well as other publications for a wider public etc.

This is the third term for this working group, and some of the activities that we propose to undertake stem from previous activities of the working group and its subgroups, like the Survivor testimonies on their experience of restorative justice and now the testimonies being sought regarding the person responsible. Both of these activities created opportunities for the involvement of the broader EFRJ membership as they enabled very successful sessions in the last two EFRJ conferences. In addition the article on domestic violence (co-authored by a number of previous members from the sub group on domestic violence) will be very useful to continue work in this very complicated field and be the basis for some of the work started.