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Nikolic-Ristanovic, Vesna and Sanja Copic. The position of victims in Serbia: criminal procedure and possibilities of restorative justice.

In the paper, the authors deal with the victim’s position in the criminal procedure, on the one hand side, and the possibilities of implementing restorative justice and its importance for the improvement of victim’s position in Serbia, on the other one. In the first part of the paper, the authors point out victim’s position within the criminal procedure and the noticed gaps, which are particularly reflected in insufficient paying attention to the victim and neglecting of his/her rights and needs. This is opposite to the strengthening of the rights of the accused party that characterizes societies, which are, as our society, on the way of democratization and improvement of human rights. In the second part of the paper, the authors analyze some solutions that introduce elements of restorative justice into our system of criminal response to crime, but from the victim’s point of view. Finally, the authors also point out some further steps that should be undertaken in order to improve the victim’s position, particularly emphasizing the place and role of victim support service, witness service and special facilities in the courts for victims/witnesses, possibilities of using victim-offender mediation before reporting the crime, or staring the prosecution, or as a part of the treatment in the prison etc.

Liebmann, Marian. Reflections on Restorative Justice in South Africa and Serbia

In March 2003 Marian Liebmann was invited to provide assistance with restorative justice initiatives in South Africa and Serbia. Here she reports on her trips and the restorative justice efforts in each country. In South Africa Liebmann spoke at a prison conference and at a Quaker meeting. She also met a number of people involved in restorative justice work in Cape Town. Then in Serbia Liebmann helped to train criminal justice professionals in victim offender mediation. She ends this article with reflections on how these two different countries are grappling with similar problems.

Milosavljevic, Slobodan. Conflict resolution at the Juvenile Correctional Institution in Krusevac, Serbia.

Conflicts between inmates at JCIK are frequent due to low level security; these can result in serious consequences including: serious damage to property, bodily injuries, self-harming, suicide attempts and suicide. Originally these acts resulted in disciplinary measures such as loosing privileges or being sent to ‘confinement’ rooms. Now such conflicts (where both parties agree) are dealt with using methods of resolution specifically tailored to JCIK. Due to the nature of the majority of the incidents at JCIK, and the fact that staff often find both parties are causing harm to one another, ‘mediation in conflicts’ is suggested as a more appropriate term. (excerpt)

Liebmann, Marian. Introducing Restorative Justice in Serbia and Montenegro

In 2003, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) office in Belgrade realized that many of the children they worked with in their child protection programmes in Serbia and Montenegro were also in trouble with the law.