Restorative justice through networking: A report from Europe

• Jurisdiction: South Africa
• Pages: 91-112
• Published date: 15 August 2019
• Date: 15 August 2019
• Citation: 2007 Acta Juridica 91
• Author: Ivo Aertsen

Restorative justice through networking: a

report from Europe

IVO AERTSEN*

Catholic University of Leuven

I INTRODUCTION

Restorative justice does not stand on its own. Its practices and

organisations are part of a context of ongoing interaction with both the

formal and informal environment. Restorative justice initiatives can only

survive in a partnership with related organisations and institutions, such as

victim support organisations, probation services, social work organisa-

tions and the criminal justice system. The relationship of restorative

justice providers with their adjacent partners, however, is not the subject

of this contribution. The main focus will be on co-operation between

restorative justice organisations, in particular at the international level.

How does this kind of co-operation emerge and develop? How do

international restorative justice organisations interact with national

organisations and developments? How do they adopt and develop

policies in relation to intergovernmental and supranational institutions?

Does their internal way of functioning ref‌lect restorative justice values

and principles, and vice versa how is international co-operation shaping

restorative justice values and principles? This paper will not provide

answers to all these questions, but they serve as a guiding framework for

it. The aim is to present and to discuss, in a rather ref‌lective and

interpretative way, international developments and co-operation as

observed in Europe thus far. Hopefully this overview of how networking

develops might be relevant for other regions, including Southern Africa.

But, such a discussion presupposes some background knowledge on how

restorative justice practices themselves are conceptualised and imple-

mented throughout Europe, and the type of problems encountered.

Therefore, to begin with, some general observations about ‘the f‌ield’.

* Ph D (Leuven); Associate professor, Institute of Criminology, Catholic University of

Leuven, and former Chair of the European Forum for Restorative Justice (2000–2004) and

COST ActionA21 on ‘Restorative Justice Developments in Europe’ (2002–2006). Part of the

data and ref‌lections in this article are based on personal experience.

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2007 Acta Juridica 91

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II RESTORATIVE JUSTICE IN EUROPE

(1) Exploring the landscape

Restorative justice practices, programmes, policies, regulation and

research in Europe

1

have been well documented during last few years.

2

This might be a f‌irst relevant f‌inding: collecting and analysing data on

restorative justice developments within European countries has largely

been realised thanks to the existence of European networks. Imparting –

often basic – national information on restorative justice practices, legal

provisions and policies helps to clarify the diversity of practices and

prevents restorative justice from being associated with just one model.

The European restorative justice f‌ield, however, also undergoes inf‌lu-

ences towards uniformity, at times through international co-operation.

Firstly, a remarkable degree of homogeneity can be observed when it

comes to a number of basic principles and standards of restorative justice

practice. These principles and standards of good practice and organisation

are formulated, for example, in Recommendation R(99)19 of the

Council of Europe concerning mediation in penal matters.

3

Another

example is the statement on standards for training, launched by the

European Forum for Restorative Justice.

4

Both policy documents have

been elaborated with the help of restorative justice practitioners and

experts. A second tendency towards homogeneity stems from a more

centralised political approach. Here, reference can be made to consider-

ations of the European Union (EU) to adopt (binding) guidelines on the

harmonisation of penalties and alternative sanctions.

5

1

In this paper, ‘Europe’ is def‌ined geographically in its broad sense, and corresponding

with the 47 member states of the Council of Europe.

2

There is a growing body of knowledge on the general state of affairs of restorative justice

in Europe, in particular on different types of provisions, on annual national data recording, on

national legislation, on empirical and theoretical research and on the applicability of restorative

justice to particular situations such as violent conf‌lict and mass victimisation. See, for example

European Forum for Victim-Offender Mediation and Restorative Justice (ed) Victim-Offender

Mediation in Europe. Making Restorative Justice Work (2000); D Miers and J Willemsens (eds)

Mapping Restorative Justice. Developments in 25 European Countries (2004); I Aertsen et al

Rebuilding Community Connections – mediation and restorative justice in Europe (2004); A Mestitz

and S Ghetti (eds) Victim-Offender Mediation in Europe: organization and practices in the juvenile

justice systems (2005). See also the f‌irst issue of ERA-Forum – Scripta iuris europaei (2002), which

is a special issue on restorative justice. Restorative justice conference reports and proceedings,

and the (forthcoming) publications of COST Action A21 on Restorative justice developments in

Europe (see below) are additional sources of information.

3

Recommendation No.R(99)19 concerning mediation in penal matters, adopted by the

Committee of Ministers on 15 September 1999.

4

Final Report JAI/2003/AGIS/129 Working towards the creation of European training models

for practitioners and legal practitioners in relation to restorative justice practices. Exchange of Training

Models for Mediation Practitioners available on http://www.euforumrj.org/readingroom/

ReportMediators.pdf (accessed on 25 September 2007).

5

Green Paper on the approximation, mutual recognition and enforcementof criminal sanctions in the

European Union COM(2004)334 f‌inal of 30April 2004.

92 RESTORATIVE JUSTICE:POLITICS,POLICIES AND PROSPECTS

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