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

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.

Mercy urged for child charged in Jakarta murder

by Ronna Nirmala & Arientha Primanita in the Jakarta Globe: The National Commission for Child Protection on Wednesday said it was working hard to save a 10-year-old boy, suspected of having stabbed and beaten his adoptive mother to death, from serving up to 15 years in jail. East Jakarta Police investigators have said the child, who is originally from Nias and is an orphaned survivor of the 2004 tsunami in Aceh, may face charges for violating the 2004 law on domestic violence.

Looking to the future: Justice and reconciliation in Cambodia

 

For the love of the Amish: Japanese can’t get enough of the Plain-sect culture

 

Global Peace Index ranks New Zealand as the world's most peaceful country, Iraq as least peaceful

The Global Peace Index is an annual publication from the Institute for Economics and Peace. It ranks countries based on 23 indicators that are divided into three broad categories: (1) measures of ongoing domestic and international conflict, (2) measures of safety and security in society, and (3) measure of militarization.

Yaacob, Hakimah. Restorative justice and Prison Industry: Proposed Waqf-Based Model for creation of victim’s fund

The Government spends more than RM30 per day for every prisoner and as to date, we have 40,000 prisoners around Malaysia. Even though the cost incurred is extremely high (RM511,100,000 annually), the crime rate continues to rise. The problem with the system nowadays is too much focus is rendered upon the offences committed by the concerned individuals and the rehabilitation of their behavior, rather than restoring the position of the crime victims back to their status quo, which would also be a move that is prudent and in line with universal humanistic objectives. The lack of self consciousness and accountability towards the crime, which is structured by the prison system itself means that at the moment, the system is not the best option with regard to preserving social justice. A theory that is founded upon responsibility and accountability has the potential to be an effective mechanism of to reduce the national crime rate. As a result, the Government’s expenditure and the cost of crime can be reduced. (author's abstract)

Taiwan forum on restorative justice

 

Editor. Sino - Australian Seminar on the Protection of Criminal Victims

A report of the proceedings of the Sino-Australian Seminar on the Protection of Criminal Victims, where Chinese and Australian people involved with restorative justice came together to share information.