Dear EFRJ Members,
At the end of each year, we are suddenly reminded to look back into our lives and, in slow motion, review all the moments of success (and failure), the moments of joy (and sadness), the moments of achievements (and disappointments) we went through during the past year. Time passes inexorably and days run rapidly transforming the present into a nostalgic remembrance of our memories. But there is a dimension of time that never becomes the past, which is the one that we do not count with minutes, but with the beats of our hearts.
At the end of 2016, we would like to remember all the moments that made our hearts beat together within our large RJ community. For sure, the main event bringing us together in 2016 has been the 9th international conference of the EFRJ in Leiden including our Annual General Meeting, but we cannot forget other important moments, such as the final seminar of the project ‘RJ and Domestic Violence’ in Brussels, the experts’ seminar organised within the framework of the Criminal Justice Platform Europe, the annual lecture of the International Journal of Restorative Justice in Milan, the RJ WEEK across Europe and beyond. And much much more!
In the following weeks, we will reach your homes with the printed edition of our EFRJ Newsletter, a compilation of some of the articles published throughout the year in the digital editions. We are thankful for the work done by our volunteers in the Editorial Committee! But we also have another surprise for our members… THE ONLINE MAP INCLUDING THE DETAILS OF OUR RJ COMMUNITY IS NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE!!! Click here to view it.
Finally, since ”All we want for Christmas… is you!!!’, please do not forget to renew your membership in 2017! We need your contribution to keep strong our RJ community and further contribute to the implementation and development of RJ services in Europe. In particular, 2017 will be a special year because the EFRJ will focus on the right for victims, offenders and communities to access quality RJ services, at any moment during criminal procedures and in any criminal case. For this, we are working on a position paper on RJ in the Victims’ Directive: we need your input, please fill in the survey before 31 January!
We wish you a great winter holiday and we are looking forward to keep on collaborating with you in 2017! See you in Berlin, Barcelona, Como, Brussels and in many other places across Europe!
Best wishes,
The EFRJ team
