Restorative Justice Week 2008
Celebrated the third week of November, Restorative Justice Week offers an opportunity for raising awareness in the community about restorative justice and recognizing the work of all those in the field. The Correctional Services Canada – Chaplaincy Branch and the Church Council on Justice and Corrections have released a series of resources with the theme ‘Fostering a Restorative Worldview’ for the 2008 celebration.
The various resources offer both secular and faith communities with tools for promoting restorative justice. These include a sample general proclamation that can be used by localities in designating the week 16-23 November 2008 as Restorative Justice Week. Other resources include:
- English-French poster to advertise different events
- Christian leaflet highlighting comments from various Christian traditions related to restorative justice
- Interfaith leaflet providing texts relevant to restorative justice from various religious traditions including Christianity, Buddism, Islam, Judaism, and Native Spirituality.
- Prayers, including two Christian and three Interfaith, offer suggested options for opening and closing the event.
- Sacred Texts provides a listing of Christian scripture from the New Jerusalem Bible translation.
For the 2008 celebration, the Church Council on Justice and Corrections
created a two-hour
workshop outline to assist faith communities in teaching members
about restorative justice. It uses a role play to help six to twenty
participants to think about the various needs of those affected by
crime at three different times: the commission of the crime, the trial,
and the restorative process. This workshop is the first in a
series to be developed for Restorative Justice Week over a three year
period.
Restorative Justice Week was first observed in Canada in 1996 as a way
of recognizing the work being done by both community organizations and
criminal justice agencies in the development of restorative justice.
Since then, the observance has spread to other countries (although some
have chosen different times of the year) and throughout Canada. In
2007, 160 cities proclaimed restorative justice week.
For more information please visit the websites of the Correctional
Services of Canada and the Church Council on
Justice and Corrections.
November 2008
