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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
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different aspects of a restorative approach to criminal matters
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youth offending
-
conflict and reconciliation
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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
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