Asia

Provides articles discussing restorative justice advancements in Asia. Articles appear in the order in which they were added to the site with the most recent appearing first.

• Hong Kong |
• Indonesia |
• Japan |
• Malaysia |
• Philippines |
• Singapore |
• Taiwan |
• Thailand

Girl's death 24 years ago haunts quest for justice in reformist Myanmar

from the article by Andrew R.C. Marshall on Reuters: ....The authorities haven't forgotten either. Political reform in Myanmar is fostering greater openness about past atrocities but little accountability, especially when the country's still-powerful military is involved. Today, Win Maw Oo's impoverished and long-suffering family remains under police surveillance.

Spotlight on restorative justice

from the article by Andy Ho on Singapore Law Watch: Singapore courts practice a limited form of such restorative justice. For example, the Community Court here is given sentencing flexibility and can issue the Community Service Order (modelled after the Corrective Work Order for litterbugs). It may also call for a pre-trial conference of family of the accused - and sometimes of the victim - to explore compensation and get an undertaking to attend therapy and so on. But all this is for minor crimes, and still offender-focused, not designed with victims in mind.

Introduction to restorative justice in Malaysia

from the article on Voice of the Children: In considering introducing restorative justice within the legal juvenile justice framework in Malaysia, we have to weigh its benefits and effectiveness in comparison to the existing system. The existing juvenile justice system, i.e. the proceedings in the Court For Children, does not provide opportunity for the full participation of the child offender and their family. It is too complicated to comprehend and very formal in nature .

Former Norwich police chief to lead Bangladeshi delegation in lessons on restorative justice

from the article by Peter Walsh in the Norwich Evening News: A former Norwich police chief will show a high-powered delegation from Bangladesh how restorative justice can be used to help cut crime without people having to be locked up. ....He said: “I’m part of a programme looking to reduce the overcrowded prisons in Bangladesh. One of their biggest problems is the inefficiency of their criminal justice system. It can take up to eight years for something to come to trial and the likelihood is defendants will spend most of their time remanded in custody. It will be their second visit to Norfolk to look at restorative justice and its something they’re really keen on.”

House passes revamped Juvenile Court Law

from the article by Ezra Sihite in the Jakarta Globe: ....Azis Syamsuddin, deputy chairman of House Commission III on legal affairs, said legislators were very thorough and careful in their deliberations on the legislation because the principle of restorative justice that it prioritized over punitive justice was unprecedented in Indonesia’s legal system. In addition to promoting restorative justice, in which the needs of the perpetrator, victim and the victim’s family must be considered in reaching a solution that is aimed at healing rather than punishing, the new law also raises the minimum age at which juvenile offenders may be incarcerated to 14 years old. The previous law set the limit at 12 years old.

Not adding up: Criminal reconciliation in Chinese juvenile justice

from the article in Dui Hua's Human Rights Journal: Recent amendments to China’s Criminal Procedure Law involve special procedures for handling cases involving juvenile defendants and resolving cases through criminal reconciliation. Although the law does not explicitly link the two, criminal reconciliation has been a key feature in the development of China’s juvenile justice system under the principle of “education first, punishment second.” Dui Hua welcomes criminal reconciliation as a means to restorative justice and reduced juvenile incarceration, but research suggests that the relatively new measure is experiencing some growing pains in China. Jiang Jue (姜珏), a PhD candidate in the School of Law at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, has done extensive research on criminal reconciliation in China and has seen how the process works in many juvenile cases. Her research indicates that current implementation of criminal reconciliation falls short of juvenile justice principles by alienating youth and stifling attempts at education.

The dead talking

from the article by Emma Slater on The Bureau of Investigative Journalism: Some may find the concept of reporter Ding Yu’s show controversial. Every week for just over five years, the glamorous Ding interviewed death row prisoners, broadcasting to an audience of 40 million Chinese. A number of the interviewees had only days to live.

Bougainville wants restorative justice approach to settling violence in south

from the report on Radio New Zealand International: The autonomous Papua New Guinea province of Bougainville hopes to resolve a long standing impasse in the south of the main island by taking the traditional Melanesian approach of reconciliation. Despite six years of autonomy, few government services are available around the district of Konnou because the security of workers can’t be guaranteed.

"Restorative justice" to reintegrate youth-at-risk into society

from Wayne Chan's article in ChannelNewsAsia.com: Minister of State for Home Affairs, Masagos Zulkifli recommended using "restorative justice" to divert delinquent youth away from the court justice system. He said this at the 1st Singapore Restorative Conference which kicked off on Thursday.

Restorative justice in the Cambodian community: Challenges and possibilities in practice

The principles and practices of restorative justice, as they’ve been developed in Western contexts, do not fully match the social values in the Cambodian community. Hierarchal social values, such as chbab srey and chbab proh, conflict with the non-hierarchal ideal in circles. In VOM, gender roles and expectations are active and challenges victim empowerment ideals. The victim and offender dichotomy, a relationship of right and wrong, challenges the Buddhist value of equanimity. FGC is perhaps the most compatible practice to Cambodian social values. The principles of restorative justice do match with Cambodian social values in the mutual recognition of interconnectedness and collective responsibility. The preservation and re-building of culture is very important among Cambodians because of the social and economic losses incurred during the Vietnam War and Khmer Rouge period. Any effort to promote restorative practices in the Cambodian community should bear this in mind. (from the paper)

Restorative justice in the Cambodian community: Challenges and possibilities in practice

from the paper by Pen Khek Chear: ....the syncretic beliefs among Cambodians lead them to also use gru to alleviate suffering and deal with conflict. Here is a personal example from the author of this paper that occurred in the Cambodian American community: There was an attempted robbery at my aunt’s liquor store, where one of the robbers was shot and killed in the store by police. The liquor store is in a predominately African American community; the robber and the police officer were also African American. The local community was outraged when they heard about the killing and suspicious of the fact that my aunt refused to talk to press or community members about what had happen. This led to a boycott of her store. She went to a gru for help. The gru said that, in order to alleviate the current problems, she had to paint the back of two turtles and let them go into a local creek. This would send the bad spirits away. She did as she was told. The boycott eventually stopped and after some months, things went back to normal.

Toward Transformative Mediation: Restorative justice practice in South Korea

from the article by Jae Young Lee: Growing interest in Restorative Justice has been emerging in Korea among scholars, law practitioners, and civil society groups since as early as the late 1990s. However, its practice was very limited until a recent experimental project from 2006-2008. During those three years, Korean Institute of Criminal Justice (KICJ) and a civil organization called Conflict Resolution Center under Women Making Peace carried out the first formal Restorative Justice project in Korea called Victim-Offender Dialog, particularly designed for juvenile cases. Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, Seoul Family Court, and Juvenile Protection Institution referred juvenile cases to Conflict Resolution Center to be dealt with a conference where conflicting parties and trained mediators sat together.

Hong Kong research demonstrates effectiveness of the restorative whole-school approach

from the paper by Dennis S.W. Wong and T. Wing Lo: To evaluate the effectiveness of a restorative whole-school approach (RWsA), a pre-post study was undertaken. The sampling frame was based on the school list provided by the education authority. A total of 1480 Secondary 1 (equivalent to aged 12) to Secondary 3 (equivalent to aged 14) students from four different Hong Kong schools participated in the survey between September 2004 and August 2006. Due to practical constraints such as the school curriculum and extra-curricular activities, schools had the autonomy to implement the programmes to different degrees, which were then evaluated by the research team.

Restorative justice will work in the Philippines: DOJ chief

from the article in CBCP News: Efforts to push for restorative justice in the country got a boost with a top government official saying it would work in the country. Department of Justice Secretary Leila De Lima said she believes the strategy can play an important role in crime reduction.

Monetary relief for rape victims soon

from Himanshi Dhawan's article in The Times of India: A week after the Union Cabinet gave its nod to a gender empowering legislation that will protect women from sexual harassment at the workplace, another landmark scheme — to provide financial aid to rape victims — could soon be a reality. Decks have been cleared to provide rape victims or their legal heirs with financial aid to ensure "restorative justice" in the form of legal and medical assistance, shelter, counselling and other support services.

Pakistani reconciliation panels solve disputes

from the article by Iqbal Khattak for CentralAsiaOnline.com: The wheels of justice often move slowly and expensively in Pakistan, causing public disgust that reputedly strengthens the militancy. Now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is addressing this problem through a Musalihatee, or reconciliatory committee, to restore public confidence and isolate the Taliban. This dispute resolution method takes pressure off police, freeing them to tackle the militancy more efficiently, observers and police officials told Central Asia Online.

Thailand: "Restorative Justice" underway for Thailand

from the article by Apichart Phankeasorn and Pattanapong Srinarm: The Thai Cabinet recently passed a bill on measures to be taken in lieu of criminal prosecution ("Bill"). If enacted, the Bill will provide alternative solutions for dealing with petty offences. The Bill, passed by the Thai Cabinet in February 2010, is now with the Thai Council of State. The Bill marks a change from retributive to restorative justice. It focuses on reforming the offender and healing the victim by allowing for mediation and probation measures rather than prosecuting the case in a court of law.

A new commission for restorative justice to deal with difficult past practices of abuse and violence in Sri Lanka

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission The communiqué from the Presidential Media Unit announcing a probe into the violations of internationally accepted norms of conduct has incorporated several new words and phrases which are not yet familiar terms in the political discourse in Sri Lanka. A few such words and phrases are: the need for restorative justice; a probe of violations of internationally accepted norms of conduct; no recurrence of such tragic conflict in the future; institutional, administrative and welfare measures already taken in the post conflict phase and which should be further taken in order to effect reconstruction, rehabilitation and reconciliation; legislative and administrative measures that may be necessary to prevent such situations in the future; assessing the lessons learned from the recent conflict phase; identification of any persons or groups responsible for such acts, (and) payment of compensation for victims. For a long period the government took up the position of burying the past as the best policy to be used in order to avoid the surfacing of the unhealed wounds. However, such a view, which has been taken in other places after the country has faced mass atrocities has not been an enduring policy. It simply becomes necessary to deal with the past. The only issue is how daringly such a task will be faced. This of course depends on the political will of the country's leaders and the civil society leaders of the time. If the country is blest with an enlightened leadership politically as well as other areas of intellectual life it becomes possible to take far reaching actions in dealing with past atrocities and violence and violations of human rights.

Restorative justice: Updating Jirga in NWFP Pakistan

from Paul O'Connor's entry in Daedalus: I and my partner, Sarah Bird, met Ali Gohar when we travelled to Pakistan to teach Energy Psychology techniques for treating PTSD after the earthquake of October 2005. This article from Peacebuilder magazine tells about the amazing work Ali is doing with the traditional restorative justice circle, called 'jirga'... Ali Gohar, MA ’02, is working to update the traditional system of jirga in the border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. He believes passionately in the core function of jirga, whereby certain elders are recognized in their communities for their wisdom and ethics; these elders gather to make community-wide decisions, resolve problems, and dispense justice. Gohar has been encouraging jirga’s elders to incorporate current principles of human rights, conflict resolution, reconciliation, and restorative justice into their deliberations.

Taiwan hopes Japanese comics can teach prosecutors

from AFP: Taiwan has asked its prosecutors to read a Japanese comic book dealing with compassion and tolerance in an effort to improve their work performance, an official said Wednesday. The justice ministry has distributed 2,000 copies of the Japanese manga "Love" based on the true story of how a bereaved mother reconciled with a family whose sixth-grader son killed her boy. The touching story was made into a critically acclaimed television series in Japan that was aired on the island last year.