8th International Conference: 11-14 June 2014., Belfast (Northern Ireland), Beyond Crime: Pathways to Desistance, Social Justice, and Peacebuilding. Click here for more information on the conference.
7th International Conference: 14 – 16 June, 2012, Helsinki (Finland), ‘Connecting People: Victims, Offenders and Community in Restorative Justice’.
Click here to see pictures of the conference.
6th International Conference: 17 – 19 June, 2010, Bilbao (Spain), ‘Doing Restorative Justice in Europe: Established Practices and Innovative Programmes’.
The report of the conference consists of 3 parts: 1 for each day:
Day 1 – Thursday 17 June
Day 2 – Friday 18 June
Day 3 – Saturday 19 June
5th International Conference: 17 – 19 April, 2008, Verona (Italy), ‘’Building restorative justice in Europe: Cooperation between the public, policy makers, practitioners and researchers’.
The report of the conference consists of 4 parts:
Introduction
Sessions dealing with “The development of restorative justice in Southern Europe”
Sessions dealing with “The potential role of the European Union in the further development of restorative justice”
Sessions dealing with “Cooperation between researchers and practitioners and the impact of research on policy makers”
4th International Conference: 15 – 17 June, 2006, Barcelona (Spain), ‘Restorative justice and beyond – an agenda for Europe’.
Everyone wants ‘justice’, but people mean different things by it, as mediators and other restorative justice practitioners experience in their daily work.
The fourth conference of the European Forum, Restorative justice and beyond – an agenda for Europe, intended to broaden the perspective on restorative justice whilst retaining the core topic of ‘justice’. In this conference the European Forum, for the first time, explored in detail what lies beyond the ‘classical’ application of restorative justice.
The conference covered five major themes:
1. restorative justice, peace-making and peace-building;
2. community mediation, working towards justice in a broad sense – beyond the intervention of criminal law agencies;
3. dealing with more severe crimes in a restorative way: exploring the place for restorative justice programmes that are not restricted to pre-trial diversion of petty offences;
4. the school mediation movement is increasingly widespread, attempting to handle conflicts beyond – or rather before – the law according to the same principles as restorative justice, and beyond the traditional offender orientation that marks the criminal justice system;
5. good practice for restorative justice, which is vital to establish a solid basis for the new approach to justice.
Report of the conference:
Introduction
Plenary session: Restorative justice and society – going beyond the law
Workshop session 1: Peace-making and peace-building efforts in Europe and community mediation
Plenary session: Restorative justice and the law – going beyong diversion
Workshop session 2: Victim-offender mediation and conferencing with more serious offences
Plenary session: School mediation and the inner dynamics of restorative justice – going beyond offender orientation
Workshop session 3: School mediation and the micro-dynamics of restorative processes
Plenary session: Establishing the basis
Workshop session 4: Training of mediators and legal professionals and standards of good practice
Plenary session: Restorative justice and beyond – An agenda for Europe
Evaluation of the conference
3rd International Conference: 14 – 16 October, 2004, Budapest (Hungary), ‘Restorative justice in Europe: Where are we heading?’
On 14-16 October 2004, the Forum organised its third biennial conference, “Restorative justice in Europe: Where are we heading?” in Budapest, Hungary. The conference mainly looked at the consequences of the increased implementation of restorative justice. Indeed, restorative justice is becoming fashionable with politicians and the criminal justice system in several European countries. Why has it suddenly attracted so much interest? Should we welcome it or treat it with caution? Are there specific societal factors that favour restorative justice? The conference reviewed the present situation in a European context, but also considered potentially positive and negative effects when restorative justice is being embraced by the establishment.
On the other hand, some initiatives in countrues especially in Eastern Europe are still struggling to find a place for restorative justice, to make it known and understood by professionals and the public and to influence the criminal justice system.
We should take care that the restorative justice ideals and values are not overruled by the established criminal justice system, but we should also consider strategies that will enable restorative justice to develop its transformative potential.
217 people from 35 different European and non-European countries participated in this conference, making it the best attended conference that the Forum has organised up till now. More than 50 Central and Eastern Europeans could benefit from a waiver of the registration fee. They were invited to the conference in the framework of the AGIS 2 project.
2nd International Conference: 10 – 12 October, 2002, Oostende (Belgium), ‘Restorative justice and its relation to the criminal justice system’.
On 10-12 October 2002, the Forum organised its second biennial conference, “Restorative justice and its relation to the criminal justice system”, in Oostende, at the Belgian coast. This conference brougt together some 180 people from all around Europe to discuss the modes of co-operation between the criminal justice system and restorative justice practices. The conference focused on the perception of restorative justice practices by different agencies of the criminal justice system and on the way these practices can have an impact on the different stages of the criminal justice process. The relationship between the criminal justice system and restorative justice practices was explored at the different stages of the criminal justice process and from the viewpoint of its respective protagonists: the police, the state prosecutors, the judges, the prison and other agencies involved in the implementation of (non-) custodial sentences.
The papers presented at this conference have been brought together in a PDF-document. Click here to open the publication.
1st International Conference: 27 – 29 October, 1999, ‘Victim-Offender Mediation in Europe. Making Restorative Justice Work’.
The Forum’s first conference, Victim-Offender Mediation in Europe. Making Restorative Justice Work, was organised in Leuven on 27 till 29 October 1999. The conference dealt with information and issues specifically on victim-offender mediation, but placed it in a larger theoretical and policy-oriented context of restorative justice. It brought together about 140 people from 24 different European countries.
For an overview of the programme of this conference, please click here.
Some of the papers presented at this conference were collected in a book.
