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Lesotho Explores Restorative Justice in Draft Bill

The Attorney General’s office of Lesotho is reviewing the draft Children’s Protection and Welfare Bill (CPWB) that will be debated when parliament resumes session. Addressing all aspects of the treatment and protection of children, the bill includes an extensive section on restorative justice and diversion for children in conflict with the law.

Frank, Cheryl and Ann Skelton. 2007.Practice Standards for Restorative Justice: A Practitioner’s Toolkit.

This Toolkit presents a set of “Practice Standards for Restorative Justice”, and consists of a set of tools to guide their usage. The intended purpose of these standards is to guide the implementation of restorative justice programmes and processes linked to the criminal justice system. The standards presented here were developed from a review of literature in the fi eld of restorative justice, and consultations with stakeholders in this fi eld. They are specifi cally derived from a range of restorative justice values and principles ... (excerpt)

Court Ruling Upholds Principles of Restorative Justice, Overturns Shaming Sanction

In January, a ruling from the High Court of South Africa (Eastern Cape Division) set aside a lower court ruling requiring a defendant convicted of six counts of fraud to publicly wear a placard announcing her guilt and asking her victims for forgiveness. In setting aside this one aspect of the sentence, the High Court referenced both the unconstitutionality of the sanction and its departure from the principles of restorative justice.

Making Sense of North American and South African Differences in the Practice of Restorative Justice

Cultural realities in North America and South Africa influence the way practice is undertaken. In this article, Susan Sharpe and George Lai Thom explore how those differences impact the practice of victim offender mediation in those two contexts.

Organizing Ex-Combatants for Peace in Mozambique

As violent civil conflicts end, ex-combatants are sometimes treated as a risk to social peace and stability. Yet, as one organization in Mozambique demonstrates, ex-combatants can be key players in the peacebuilding process, promoting peace and reconciliation, and mediating peaceful solutions to conflicts.

Ridell, Jennifer. Addressing Crimes Against International Law: Rwanda’s Gacaca in Practice

Rwanda experienced horrific genocide in 1994. In its aftermath, national and international trials were established but these trials failed to deal expeditiously with the large numbers of suspects awaiting trial. To combat this, Rwanda introduced an innovative participative justice mechanism, Gacaca. Modern Gacaca is based on a traditional Rwandan restorative justice mechanism of the same name. Its rooting in Rwanda's history makes Gacaca a much more acceptable form of justice to the Rwandan people than international trials given the international community's abandonment of Rwanda during the genocide. While Gacaca falls short of many international fair trial standards it remains Rwanda’s best hope as a wholly Rwandan process. But, Gacaca is more than just a judicial instrument, it has restorative justice at its origin and seeks, as its ultimate aim, to reconcile Rwanda’s divided communities. To reach this aim, Gacaca has several other objectives including discovering the truth of what happened in 1994, ending impunity which has plagued Rwanda since independence and allowing the Rwandan population to participate in the search for justice at a local level. This thesis studies the importance of these aims to Gacaca and whether the Gacaca courts are meeting their optimistic objectives in order to evaluate whether Gacaca is succeeding in Rwanda. Research was conducted through interviews throughout Rwanda and much civil society research was studied as well as material discussing the objectives from a more conceptual perspective. Gacaca's potential is outstanding and its objectives all play a very important role which, if met, will secure a much more stable future for Rwanda. In practice, however, these objectives are not being met. The population is not actively participating in the trials thus the truth is not aired. Moreover, the perception of victor's justice hampers the ability of Gacaca to end impunity in Rwanda.

Colvin, Christopher J.. 'We Are Still Struggling': Storytelling, Reparations and Reconciliation after the TRC.

Since the inception of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the twin projects of 'healing' and 'reconciliation' have gained prominence as key elements of a particular model of socio- political transformation being articulated in South Africa. Though by no means universally accepted, an emphasis on the ideas of healing and reconciliation formed the focus of much of the TRC's self-presentation, the government's support for the TRC and the media's representation of its work. As the most public, most publicised and best funded and supported of healing and reconciliation projects, the TRC provided both the impetus and the model for many of the parallel and subsequent projects in civil society that have tried to add to, complement, extend and critique the work initiated by the TRC. As Undine Kayser mentions, however, there remain 'few institutionalised post-TRC spaces for South Africans to practically engage with personal memories and the apartheid past' (Kayser, 2001, p. 3). This report considers one of those institutionalised spaces: the Cape Town Trauma Centre for Survivors of Violence and Torture and the Western Cape Branch of the Khulumani Support Group that grew out of the work of the Trauma Centre. Like the TRC, these two groups confront past memories of violence and abuse in an attempt to heal from and overcome the emotional toll these memories continue to exact. However, the contexts examined here are different to that of the TRC and the work, at least of the support group, is often oriented towards meeting longer-term economic survival and political advocacy needs as much as to enabling psychological recovery. Though the Trauma Centre facilitates a range of programmes that might be considered part of the broader project of healing and reconciliation, this report will focus on one of its programs, the Torture Project, and in particular, the now-independent victim support group that grew out of the work of that project. What follows is both a description of the development and current activities and organisation of these two groups as well as a consideration of the impacts of their work, the challenges they face and the broader issues they raise about the problems of bringing about personal, social and political change in post-apartheid South Africa. This report will focus on the work of the support group, and in particular, on the work and perspectives of the group's executive committee. (excerpt)

Naidu, Ereshnee. Empowerment through Living Memory: A community-centred model for memorialisation.

Memory plays various but often significant roles within transitional justice societies. Since memory within a transitional justice society is often a social construct that is mediated between the state and the individuals within that state, memory may take the form of selective amnesia where the state influences collective memory formation. Within this context human rights violations and the atrocities of the past are often 'forgotten' in an attempt to forge immediate reconciliation. However, various studies have shown that such processes tend to hinder reconciliation as well as fuel underlying tensions within a transitional society. However, if used constructively, memory and memorialisation processes can play a significant role in the reconciliation process as it allows for the recognition of individual victims and survivors of the conflict; allows different generations to understand the conflict and mediate between the past and the present; and allows the society collective spaces for mourning that can promote the process of healing past wounds. In view of the peace-building capacity of memory work and its potential to empower communities by forging reconciliation, CSVR embarked on a community-centred intervention project. The following report outlines the five phases of the process that focused on a community centred approach to memorialisation. This report aims to give practitioners working within the field of memorialisation a detailed understanding of the process that was undertaken in the different phases of the project so as to enable practitioners and communities themselves to initiate their own memory projects. The first part of the report, will describe the information-gathering phase, and will outline the methodology, findings and some of the recommendations of the community needs assessment that was conducted in the Vaal. The second part of the report, will describe the actual intervention phase. The intervention focussed on training members of the Khulumani Support group – the training focussed both on conceptual issues around memory as well as basic project development with a specific focus on memory work. The second part of this report will also include a description of the design of the training manual,1 the selection of participants, the facilitated workshops that culminated in the conceptualisation of a memory project by the group; and finally, the evaluation phase.(excerpt)

Borland, Rosilyne M. The Gacaca Tribunals and Rwanda after Genocide: Effective Restorative Community Justice or Further Abuse of Human Rights?

The genocide in Rwanda in the spring of 1994 was one of the world’s most horrific acts of collective violence. National and international attempts to deal with suspected perpetrators of the genocide have not fulfilled expectations, remarks Rosilyne Borland. The national legal system of Rwanda, she also states, has failed to administer justice adequately. In response to all of this, and as pressure increases to address the past and process the thousands still in prison, the Rwandan government has devised an alternative justice mechanism. It is called gacaca. Some claim that gacaca is bringing healing and reconciliation to Rwanda. Others warn that it makes possible further human rights abuses. With all of this in view, Borland analyzes the gacaca law, its early implementation, and relevant justice theories (especially restorative justice and community justice theories). Her aim is to examine whether Rwanda is succeeding in achieving justice after the genocide of 1994.

Morton, Jonathan. South African NGO Furthers the Implementation of Restorative Justice

Khulisa, a South African crime prevention organization, has made significant inroads applying restorative justice in a society that has faced significant increases in crime over the past decade. Khulisa, whose name means to nurture the development of a person, uses an array of programs to assist children at risk and young offenders. In addition to working throughout the country, Khulisa also partners with a variety of governmental departments.

Endalew, Tsega. Luba Basa and Harma Hodha: Traditional Mechanisms of Conflict Resolution in Metekkel, Ethiopia

Metekkel, a vast low-lying territory on the Ethio-Sudanese frontier, is inhabited by the Gumuz, Shinasha, Oromo, Agew and Amhara who continued their interactions for their daily activities. Although they have their own respective traditional mechanisms of conflict resolutions they gradually adopted Oromo traditional institutions including the Luba Baasa, Harma Hodhaa and Micu. Luba Baasa (lit. to set free) and Harma Hodhaa (lit. Breast - suckling) are Oromoo names and are used by the Gumuz and Shinasha who also speak Oromoo. Luba Baasa is more of preventive mechanism and gradually establishes ethnic integration through adoption. The Harma Hodhaa (Harma hosisuu/hodhuu), however, establishes a kind of parent - child relationships between ethnic groups, individuals as well as within groups. The Gumuz or the Shinasha individual either representing his clan or family is supposed to suckle a breast or anointed thumb of the Oromo individual and becomes his xe2x80x98son.xe2x80x99 The whole group to which the individual belongs becomes xe2x80x98sonsxe2x80x99 to the xe2x80x98breast Father.xe2x80x99 xe2x80x98The xe2x80x98Fatherxe2x80x99 agrees to treat the xe2x80x98sonxe2x80x99 in the same way as his natural son (naturalization) and provide all the necessary material assistance. In Oromo society, some Oromo or non-Oromo groups are considered as xe2x80x98castesxe2x80x98 and despised until they are assimilatedxe2x80xa6. They have no peaceful interaction with each other and no mutual support in agricultural activities and so on. However, rural societies particularly agricultural communities need cooperation, and for each daily interactions and mutual coexistence they should, therefore, come into terms. These institutions are intra as well as inter ethnic conflict resolution principles and are widely applied in many parts of Ethiopia; and can even meet demands out side Africa. If refurbished, the findings show that, they can be of paramount importance to policy makers and practitioners. (excerpt)

Roche, Declan. Restorative Justice and the Regulatory State in South African Townships

In townships across South Africa the Community Peace Program, based in Cape Town, is helping local communities establish peace committees. This article argues that through their commitment to a consensus-based, reparative approach to dealing with crime, peace committees reflect restorative processes and values. In other respects, peace committees are quite different to most restorative justice programmes in England, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. One such difference is their independence from the formal criminal justice system, which this article places within the context of the increasing privatization of policing and governance more generally. Peace committees are also novel for their attempt to address the structural problems underlying crime, the wide range of crimes they attempt to address, and specific aspects of the process used for meetings between victims, offenders and community members.

Skelton, Ann. Restorative Justice as a Framework for Juvenile Justice Reform: A South African Perspective

The South African Cabinet has recently given approval for the introduction into Parliament of a Bill that will provide a new system to deal with child offenders. This article suggests that the context of political transition in South Africa made it easier to promote restorative justice as a fundamental principle of juvenile justice reform. The theme of reconciliation that characterized the transition is linked to the African philosophy of humanity and community, 'ubuntu'. The acceptance of 'a different kind of justice', familiar from African traditional justice, community courts and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission provided fertile ground for debates about the modern international trend towards restorative justice approaches, and this has had a notable impact on juvenile justice reform. The article moves on to describe selected aspects of the Child Justice Bill, examining the extent to which these clauses reflect a restorative justice approach. Finally there is a discussion about some of the challenges to promoting restorative justice in an environment of public concern about crime.

Skelton, Ann. Children and the Law

This manual on children and the law is based on expert analysis and aimed at those people who help children and their families. It is written in a straightforward language, making it also understandable to older children and their families. The manual is made up of fourteen chapters covering a wide range of issues, which clearly set out key areas of the law relating to children in South Africa.

McCandless, Erin. The case of land in Zimbabwe: Cause of conflict, foundation for peace

As land ownership has been and continues to be a major source of conflict in Zimbabwe, the question of land reform raises intense issues: how can land or other resources be redistributed in a just manner and toward just ends, fostering reconciliation and promoting sustainable human development? To deal with these issues, McCandless begins by examining aspects of reconciliation and justice theory on protracted social conflict, especially as such theorizing proposes a hybrid justice-reconciliation conceptual framework. He then applies these ideas to the case of land reform in Zimbabwe: post-independence policy; the government's approaches; the international community's role; challenges and opportunities as presented by stakeholders; the work of non-governmental organizations; and land redistribution toward a sustainable just peace.

Kercher, L. C. The Kenya Penal System: Past, Present and Prospect

The various sanctions used in recent historical time by traditional East African societies against offenders are reviewed. While imprisonment has been widely used in sanctioning convicted offenders in Kenya, as well as in East Africa generally, several alternatives to imprisonment have been available. Historically correlating various political periods to the different correctional policies and systems in Kenya from the beginning of the colonial period to the present, this field study also examines characteristics of offenders and inmates in Kenya, various components of Kenya's criminal justice and correctional systems, the effectiveness of imprisonment, and trends in correctional policy and programs in Kenya.

South African Law Commission. Alternative dispute resolution

The South African Law Commission, established by the South African Law Commission Act (1973), undertakes research to study and investigate all areas of law in order to make recommendations for the development, improvement, modernization, and reform of law in South Africa. This document consists of an issue paper prepared by the Commission to elicit responses and serve as a basis for the Commission’s deliberations on alternative dispute resolution (ADR). Sections of the paper cover the origins of the Commission’s consideration of ADR; a description of the nature of ADR and types of ADR; specific issues with respect to ADR (the role of ADR in civil practice, and family mediation); and recommendations for the use of ADR in South Africa.

Dissel, Amanda. Restorative Justice Initiative Research Report on the Victim Offender Conferencing Project: November 2002 to October 2003

The Restorative Justice Initiative raised funds for a third year of Victim Offender Conferencing in its four partner sites: Alexandra Community Law Clinic, Odi Community Law Clinic, Conquest for Life in Westbury, and the West Rand Justice Centre. The project has been supported by the Open Society Foundation during the three years. The proposal sought to ensure that the VOC project would continue for a further year, but it also sought to test VOC in relation to more serious offending. The current year was intended to focus on serious offending (such as assault with intention to inflict grievous bodily harm) and domestic violence. It was also intended to pilot mediations at custodial institutions. Because the nature of cases was meant to be different, requiring more detailed preparation, the number of cases to be handled by each site was reduced to thirty cases in the year. In fact, each site was paid for 36 mediations, or three a month (a total of 144 cases). This report reviews the cases dealt with during the 2002/03 year, compares them with cases mediated in the previous two years, and reviews whether these cases did indeed fulfill the expectations of testing VOC with more serious cases and domestic violence. (excerpt)

van der Merwe, Hugo. Reparations in Southern Africa

This one is among the first comparative studies of reparation in the light of transitional justice in Southern Africa largely unexplored, save of course for South Africa. At the core of the South African transformation is the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) considered by some to be "the most far-reaching and the most effective of its genre". Similarly, South Africa's Reparation and Rehabilitation Committee of the TRC is the source of scholarly and policy debates in transitional justice circles worldwide. Yet, despite its popularity, South Africa's transitional process merits critical examination especially needed with the reparation issue which generated controversy and acrimony. This study seeks to add to the growing literature on reparations to victims of human rights abuses in the context of a political transition, by examining the experiences of South Africa, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Mozambique in developing official, non-judicial reparation programmes for victims/survivors of human rights abuses. For each country, the study explores: the nature of the political transition; the nature of the human rights violations or political atrocities that took place; the identifiable needs arising as consequences from human rights violations; programmes (if any) aimed at providing "reparation" and their targeted beneficiaries; factors accounting for the development (or non-development) of these programmes; and the consequences of the reparation programmes. Any debate on overcoming an unjust past ultimately has to deal with the issue of reparation, which should not be confused with reconstruction or reconciliation. (excerpt)

Abe, Toshihiro. Christian Principles in a Social Transition: The South African Search for Reconciliation

The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has been argued as one of the prominent cases by which post-confl ict societies coped with diffi culties. Discussions have tended to criticize its effectiveness and limits. That tendency is more marked when the discussion is on the applicability of that kind of activity to another society. This paper features the particularity of South African society without particular evaluation of the TRC, especially dealing with its religious implication. This standpoint is effective for the analysis of the transitional society which is identifi ed from its relative lack of legitimacy on due process. This paper traces some religious discourses, which have affected the TRC body implicitly and explicitly in historical transition. Two prominent fi gures to whom I give my attention are Desmond Tutu and Charles Villa-Vicencio. However the two Christians’ discourses have incompatibilities with each other to some extent, both still show a tangency which can be interpreted as a unique function in a sheer estrangement of post-Apartheid transitional society. Tutu’s Ubuntu (cultural syncretism) and Villa-Vicencio’s restorative justice through negotiation (political secularism) are considered in this context, and both suggest that they let the ‘divided’ people negotiate over confl icting plurality in a transitional society. Author's abstract.