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

Broadhurst, Roderic G. and Zhong, Lena Y.. "Building Little Safe and Civilized Communities: Community Crime Prevention With Chinese Characteristics?"

This article describes a community crime prevention program in China, set against a background of rapid economic development, large internal population migration, and increasing crime rates. Traditional social control in China has been transformed to adapt to the new reform era, yet some mechanisms remain intact. Crime prevention measures and strategies resemble those adopted in the West; however, the differences, constituting the so-called Chinese characteristics with community crime prevention are significant.

Sreekumar, R. . Restorative Justice practices in India: some glimpses.

Realisation of mistake, admittance of guilt and forgiveness are some of the essential requirements of restorative justice. The present Indian criminal justice system – a hangover of the colonial times – hardly bears any semblance to instances of restorative justice or forgiveness of the ancient times or the modern ones outside the formal system. This article summarises a few such instances. (excerpt)

Morris, Allison and Maxwell, Gabrielle and Hayes, Hennessey. Conferencing and Restorative Justice

Family group conferences in the New Zealand youth justice system have been the centre of international interest since they were introduced there in 1989, and they have since been imitated by a number of countries. Enabling legislation for juvenile offenders has been passed in New Zealand, Australia, England and Wales, Canada, Ireland, and Singapore. Also in New Zealand, legislation has been passed for adult offenders. Various versions of conferencing for young offenders have been introduced in Belgium, Hong Kong, Japan, the Netherlands, South Africa, Sweden, and the United States. More recently, new initiatives have been taken to introduce restorative conferencing in Brazil and Argentina for both adults and young people. In this chapter, we describe restorative justice conferencing for juveniles with a particular emphasis on New Zealand and Australia and assess the extent to which it can be said to reflect restorative justice processes and to result in restorative justice outcomes using research chiefly drawn from Australasia and North America. In addition, we examine data on the extent to which conferencing can reduce re-offending. But first, we discuss the development of restorative justice conferencing. (excerpt)

Schärf, Wilfred. The Challenges Facing Non-State Justice Systems in Southern Africa: How do, and How Should Governments Respond?

The structure of this paper starts, Firstly with an examination of the terminology used over the last 50 years when talking about non-state justice. I try to show that it is not all semantics but that the names take on particular ideological baggage, depending on whether the form of non-state justice is pro-state or anti-state. It also depends on who is talking, a person in a liberation struggle or someone opposing that liberation. This is to contextualize what we nowadays use quite loosely, terms such as restorative justice and traditional justice. Secondly, I will explore the different forms that non-state justice takes in the six countries under scrutiny as well as examples from India, Bangladesh, the Phillipines and Latin America. The state's responses to these phenomena will then be sketched followed by recommendations about how states, development-donors and citizens could contribute to better governance and more effective co-operation between different forms of non-states justice and the state. Thirdly I will share some of the developments in the SA Law Commission project group on Community Dispute Resolution Structures (CDRS).

Philpott, Daniel. The Politics of Past Evil: Religion, Reconciliation, and the Dilemmas of Transitional Justice

What unfolds in the following pages, then, is a conversation about how theology and politics are related in the theory and practice of reconciliation, situated in the context of transitional states. What place does reconciliation have in the politics of transition? What are the warrants for it? Four theorists, two theologians and two philosophers draw explicitly from theological perspectives in answering these questions. The answers are fresh angles in today’s debate. Our conversation, though, also recognizes that reconciliation’s credibility as an approach to politics depends not only on a theoretical foundation but also on an account of its place in the tug and haul of actual political transition. Two political scientists and a historian, all sympathetic to the theological perspectives, then chart the path of reconciliation, sometimes torturous, sometimes propitious, in South Africa, Northern Ireland, Argentina, and Germany. The divide between the two sorts of inquiry is not neat. The theorists are cognizant of contemporary political transitions; the empirically oriented scholars are theoretically conscious. Explicating theological warrants, mapping the texture of actual political transitions, echoing debates within these transitions, our conversation addresses a wide variety of interlocutors, both scholarly and generalist, both with and without theological commitments. (excerpt)

Wing Lo, T and Wong, Dennis and Maxwell, Gabrielle. Diversion From Youth Courts in Five Asia Pacific Jurisdictions: Welfare or Restorative Solutions

This article examines how juvenile offenders are diverted from prosecution in juvenile courts in five Asia Pacific jurisdictions: Queensland, Australia; New Zealand; Hong Kong; Singapore; and China. In all of these jurisdictions, there has been a trend away from punitive and retributive approaches to the diversion of juvenile offenders from prosecution in a court to the community-based welfare model and the restorative model. The community-based welfare model relies primarily on counseling, community support, and educational assistance and is usually led by professionals. This model tends to categorize juvenile offenders as having problem behaviors and emotional conditions that require treatment and supervision. The restorative model emphasizes the accountability of juvenile offenders for the harms their behavior caused and uses negotiation among the youth, their victims, and the youth's family to develop measures for repairing the harm done and addressing the youth's behaviors that caused the harm. This model limits the involvement of professionals in decisionmaking about the disposition of the case. New Zealand and Queensland use the restorative model. Criticisms of this model have included the lack of due process and protections for the rights of offenders, as well as the potential for undue influence by the police. Hong Kong and Singapore have adopted a traditional rehabilitation and welfare orientation whereby police divert juveniles from the courts through police cautions and referrals to community support and guidance services operated by social workers. In China, community-based practices such as police cautions, mediation, and educational assistance are used in diverting youth from court-based processing. Community-based sanctions are particularly susceptible to the influence of personal power and persuasion, and outcomes may favor those who have close affiliations with or hold powerful positions in the government. Abstract courtesy of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, www.ncjrs.gov.

Sugama,Terence. Reconciling the Past: Japan's Wartime Atrocities and the Legacies of Post-War Narrative Tensions between Japan, China and South Korea

This thesis will examine the role of narrative in shaping the Japanese account of its war past in the lead-up and throughout the Second World War and, specifically, Japanese atrocities and aggression directed against China, Korea and its nationals. It will argue that Japan has thus far been unable to definitely resolve those tensions within Japanese society and without, from the victims of atrocity in the People’s Republic of China (China) and the Republic of Korea (South Korea) in forming a coherent wartime narrative that remembers both the horror of war for the Japanese and acknowledges the suffering of their victims. Further, this thesis contends that a meaningful engagement in acts of reconciliation, a tool of restorative justice, between Japan and victims in China and South Korea is both desirable and necessary in alleviating those tensions.

Borer, Tristan Anne. Telling the Truths: Truth Telling and Peace Building in Post-Conflict Societies

Confronting the past has become an established norm for countries undergoing transitions from violence to peace, from authoritarianism to democracy, or both. This book draws from two bodies of literature – peacebuilding and transitional justice – to examine whether truth-telling mechanisms can contribute to sustainable peace and, if so, how and under what conditions. The authors approach these questions by examining whether truth telling contributes to the following elements, all of which are deemed to be constitutive of sustainable peace: reconciliation, human rights, gender equity, restorative justice, the rule of law, the mitigation of violence, and the healing of trauma. (publisher’s description).

Nixon, Rod. The Crisis of Governance in New Subsistence States.

The aim of this article is to explore options for public administration in weak states that lack experience of a self-generated state development process. The article commences with a review of the state development process in pre-historic times. Drawing on weak state writings and sociological theory, and with reference to the state development process as it unfolded in Europe, a critical examination of dominant prescriptions for state-building is then undertaken. Based on the sociological information considered, it is proposed that state-building strategies that may be appropriate for societies with experience of state social organisation and the administration of large surpluses, may be inappropriate for societies which have experienced no internally-generated change in the direction of state social organisation. Yet countries characterised by these later kinds of societies, referred to in this article as new subsistence states, by nature possess a range of local administrative mechanisms capable of operating independently from the state in accordance with the principles of "traditional authority." These local administrative mechanisms have no reliance on the centralised accrual and management of large surpluses for their operation. It is argued--with a particular emphasis on the areas of justice and conflict resolution - that sustainable public administration in new subsistence states will be advantaged by the formal recognition and integration of such local capacities. The article considers recent analysis of developments in the Pacific, and draws on research indicating the effectiveness of local justice and conflict mediation systems in East Timor. (excerpt).

Kashayap, Rina. Restorative Justice Roots in Indian Popular Culture and Gandhian Philosophy.

My engagement with the concept of restorative justice has entailed on occasions a sense of déjà vu and renewing of acquaintance with a friend long forgotten. At times it is the “aha!” feeling, the lifting of the veil that reveals a concealment I did not know existed. This paradoxical state is not a surprise because I come from a land about which “if you say one thing, the opposite is also true.” This aphorism probably emerged because the young nation-state of India is one of the oldest civilizations. Indian culture is multicultural, multireligious, and multilingual, a reservoir of multiple traditions. In India, there is also a practical quotidian existence of tradition(s) and modernity (see Ramanujan, 1989). (excerpt)

Anonymous. Kake Circle Peacemaking

In 1999, in an effort to curb youth alcohol abuse, tribal members of the Organized Village of Kake(federally recognized Tribe of Kake, Alaska) established the Healing Heart Council and Circle Peacemaking, a reconciliation and sentencing process embedded in Tlingit traditions. Working in seamless conjunction with Alaska 's state court system, Circle Peacemaking intervenes in the pernicious cycle by which underage drinking becomes an entrenched pattern of adult alcoholism. Today, the program not only enforces underage drinking sentences in an environment where such accountability had been rare, but also restores the Tlingit culture and heals the Kake community.

Hooper, Stephen. Should East Timor establish a truth and reconciliation commission?

In 1999, through a United Nations sponsored referendum, the people of East Timor voted on whether to pursue greater autonomy under Indonesian rule or independence itself from Indonesia. The proponents of independence won the vote, but then a devastating period of violence by pro-autonomy militia followed. Now independent East Timor must rebuild both materially and socially. In this context, Stephen Hooper writes that East Timor must rebuild in such a way that justice is done and reconciliation occurs.

Strang, Heather. Crimes against schools: The potential for a restorative justice approach

Crimes against schools – such as vandalism and arson – are enormously expensive, both in monetary and social terms. Schools are prime targets for a variety of reasons. Strang maintains that restorative justice provides considerable potential for resolving crimes against schools. To advance her argument, she explores specific restorative justice practices, with particular focus on conferencing. This leads to discussion of restorative conferencing and the Reintegrative Shaming Experiments (RISE) in Canberra, Australia, in relation to school crime.

Spaulding, Patricia. Aküm Longchari: A brief interview with a Naga peacebuilder

Nagalim (Nagaland) is a territory located at the juncture of China, India, and Burma. It has had a longstanding dispute with India to maintain independence from India. Aküm Longchari, a graduate of the Conflict Transformation Program (Eastern Mennonite University, Virginia), is a native of Nagalim (Nagaland) and an activist there. He works to strengthen the Indo-Naga peace process, as well strengthening Naga internal capacity to achieve a just peace and reconciliation. In this interview he talks about his experience in the Conflict Transformation Program and its application to his efforts at peacebuilding amidst the conflict in Nagaland with India.

Cummings, E. Mark and Lovell, Erin L. Conflict, conflict resolution and the children of Northern Ireland: Towards understanding the impact on children and families

The authors of this paper use a multidisciplinary approach to investigate the effects of conflict and conflict processes on children in Northern Ireland. Employing an ecological-transactional analysis of conflict processes, with its emphasis on multiple levels of influences on children, the authors focus on psychological, sociological, and familial processes affected by the communal conflict in that land and their effects on children. According to the authors, the effects of conflict in society, community, and family negatively influence children’s sense of security and their ability to regulate emotional and behavioral responses to conflict. Affected children are more likely to exhibit emotional and behavioral problems in their relationships as they develop. At the same time, children are highly sensitive to conflict resolution; emotionally and behaviorally, they benefit significantly from resolution of conflict in family, community, and society.

Borer, Tristan Anne. Reconciliation in South Africa: Defining success

A question often asked of any program or process is the question of effectiveness. Did a program or process achieve the goals or results set for it? This question or questions like it are often raised in relation to the work of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). What good did it do? What did it accomplish? Did it work? In this paper, Borer investigates the connection between the term “reconciliation�? and the term “success�? with respect to the results of the TRC’s work. The aim is twofold: (1) provide an analytical framework clarifying the term “reconciliation�? and various understandings or uses of it, especially in the South African context; and (2) examine the term “success�? and issues concerning measures of success.

Wong, Dennis S. W.. Juvenile crime and responses to delinquency in Hong Kong

This article describes the juvenile crime trend and responses to juvenile delinquency in Hong Kong since the 1970s. It explores how changing conceptions of the causes of juvenile crime have influenced delinquency control policies. Although Hong Kong has a relatively low crime rate, the heavy emphasis on the use of custodial programs over community-based programs is obvious. Whereas the scope of delinquency literature is narrow and the legal professional’s opinion is rather conservative, new initiatives to further advance the juvenile justice system are difficult. Author's abstract.

Siapno, Jacqueline Aquino. Dismantling the master’s house: War and peace in Aceh and East Timor – the limitations of the language we use

In this paper, Jacqueline Siapno looks at conflicts in Aceh and East Timor over independence from Indonesia. Efforts to resolve those conflicts and make peace, according to Siapno, must also address issues of justice in each context. In particular, thinking and making peace require re-imagination of language and space for a new kind of politics. A new kind of politics is required to reckon with the structural roots of war, inequality, and violence in their many forms, including patriarchy, colonizing practices, state terror, misogyny, class conflict, poverty, and racism. Siapno tells the stories of many who have suffered from these injustices and many who have sought to overcome them with new structures of language and politics.

Morris-Suzuki, Tessa. Remembering war, making peace: History, truth and reconciliation in East Asia.

Tessa Morris-Suzuki writes about prospects for peace in East Asia against the background of past injustices and amidst a present complex of realignments in international relations and domestic politics. She maintains that historical responsibility for past events responds not only to the past but also to the future. In this context, she looks at problems raised by asymmetrical memories – the remembrance and teaching of different histories in various countries of the same set of past events (compare Japan and Korea). She also engages the question of present responsibility for past injustices.

Kin-man, Tai. Community Involvement in Corrections in Hong Kong

The paper focuses on corrections under the penal jurisdiction of the Correctional Services Department, as well as the community-based corrections under the Social Welfare Department. At any time, there are over 20 non-governmental organizations involved in the work of the correctional system in Hong Kong. They are dominated by religious organizations, which engage mostly in evangelistic activities. Other groups provide reintegration support, prison visits, and counseling services. The Society for the Rehabilitation of Offenders is dedicated to helping ex-prisoners in their reintegration in the community. The Prisoners' Friends' Association provides prison visits, primarily to those prisoners who do not receive visits from relatives or friends. In addition to non-governmental organizations, private individuals from the community are also involved in rehabilitative activities for offenders. These range from evening education classes to hobby classes, sports training, recreation, and character training. The media promotes public awareness of the goals of offenders' rehabilitation.