The Centre for Legal and Judicial Reform (CLJR) in Russia held its second international conference, “Restorative Justice in Russia: Experience and Perspectives for Century XXI,” June 7-9, 2004, in Moscow.  

The various opinions presented addressed the main challenges to restorative justice and its promotion in different countries and cultures. One of the featured panel discussions considered "Judicial Reform in Russia: Opportunities for Restorative Justice." Speakers included:

• Tamara Morshchakova (Councillor and retired Judge of the Constitutional Court of Russia, and deputy chairman of the President’s Council for Justice Improvement);
• Galina Istomina (Judge of the Supreme Court of Russia); and
• Vladimir Zolotykh (deputy chairman of Rostov-on-Don regional court).

Other speeches given throughout the conference included:  

• Criminological Basis of Restorative Justice, by John Braithwaite (Australian National University);
• The Role of European Institutions in Restorative Justice Policies, by Ivo Aertsen (European Forum for Victim-Offender Mediation and Restorative Justice, and Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium);
• Restorative Approaches for Working with Juveniles in the Criminal Justice System, by Guy Masters (Wandsworth Youth Offending Team, UK); and
• Problems of Institutionalization of Restorative Justice, by Rustem Maksudov (Centre for Legal and Judicial Reform, Russia).

Representatives of the Russian network “Restorative Practices” reported on continued restorative justice activity throughout the country. Since the first international conference in 2001, the restorative justice movement has developed domestically through the energies of practitioners from the CLJR and a number of working groups in many regions of Russia. Members of the “Restorative Practices” network have helped to make restorative justice a political and public reality with programmes being implemented in ten regions of the country. The experience gained is analyzed and summarized, and the population is informed of restorative justice principles and opportunities. Working groups maintain permanent contacts with local and regional governments. Many representatives of the juridical community and federal state bodies have become familiar with restorative justice.  

This year’s conference also included a number of round-table discussions to exchange ideas on

• different aspects of a restorative approach to criminal matters  

• youth offending

• conflict and reconciliation

• issues related to incorporating restorative justice.

Representatives of the General Prosecutor’s Office of Russia, courts, juvenile commissions and regional social services attended.   

The conference gave a new impulse to restorative justice development in Russia. As an outcome, participants agreed to develop a joint conference devoted to The Convention on the Rights of the Child in the context of restorative justice for juvenile offenders. This conference is now being actively promoted and organized with involvement of representatives of the Russian Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court and the General Prosecutor’s Office. 

Conferees also decided to organise a seminar on applying the Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe concerning mediation in penal matters.  Furthermore, training will be organised in Rostov-on-Don for programme facilitators, on the mechanisms of building restorative justice programmes into criminal procedure.  Rostov-on-Don is one of the several Russian regions where experimental work with juvenile justice implementation is under way.   

The conference was organised as part of a joint British-Russian project. “Restorative Justice in Russia” started in 2002 as a partnership between De Montfort University (UK) and the CLJR.  The Project Director is Eamonn Keenan. The Russian project team is led by Rustem Maksudov.  The project aims to develop restorative justice for young offenders and to incorporate it into the Russian legal system.  Through these efforts, the project team seeks to reduce the Russian juvenile prison population and recidivism.   

CLJR is the first organization in Russia with professionally developed methods for restorative justice programmes applied to juvenile criminal cases. Since June 1999, CLJR handled eighty victim-offender reconciliation cases for minors in the Tagansky and Akademichesky districts of Moscow. Support was given by the Russian prosecutor general, regional law-enforcement bodies and the court. Social workers also cooperated with the process.  

For more information on restorative justice development in Russia, see the CLJR website at http://www.sprc.ru/english.html. 

Juvenile Justice – an overview of experimental projects in Russia, by M.G. Fliamer and L.M. Karmosova.  Trans. Izolde Grahner, 2002, Deutsch-Russischer Austausch e.V. .

September 2004