Hungary

Provides a listing of articles on restorative justice developments in Hungary. Articles appear in the order in which they were added to the site with the most recent appearing first.

Restorative practices in Hungary: An ex-prisoner is reintegrated into the community

from the article by Vidia Negrea: As the representative of Community Service Foundation of Hungary, the Hungarian affiliate of the International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP), I participated in a group session of the Hungarian Crime Prevention and Prison Mission Foundation in summer 2009 (Sycamore Tree Project — www.pfi.org/cjr/stp/introduction — or Zacchaeus Program in Hungary). There I met the governor of Balassagyarmat prison, where inmates were working in groups on issues related to their crimes and exploring ways to repair relationships they had damaged. Some inmates began accepting responsibility for what they had done and were motivated to make things right and earn forgiveness of victims and their families. Prisoners made symbolic reparation in the form of community service within the prison, but there was still a lot to do to create opportunities for offenders to make contact with victims and shed the stigma of their offense by means of direct reparation. Also, prison management believed it important to support processes, acceptable to victimized families and communities, to help prisoners regain control of their lives and prevent reoffending.

Restorative Practices in Hungary — Transforming Schools and Prisons

From the Restorative E-Forum article by Laura Mirsky: In April 2010 Vidia Negrea, director of Community Service Foundation (CSF) Hungary, provided an introductory training in facilitating restorative conferences for four different youth group homes in Budapest. This is just the latest development in her work spreading restorative practices in Hungary, which also includes major efforts in schools and prisons. Psychologist Negrea came to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA, in 2000 to learn about restorative practices and has never looked back. Her recent work has been supported by the Ministry of Justice Hungary and the city of Budapest, including a project to reduce aggressive behavior in children and youth, which is bringing restorative practices to six big-city high schools. At first some of the leaders in these high schools weren’t open to the idea of restorative practices. The success of the practices in the wake of one particular incident changed their minds.

Three-year research project on mediation and restorative justice in prison settings

from the flyer announcing the project: The Mediation and Restorative Justice in Prison Settings Project is a three year international exchange project funded by the European Commission, between the counties of Germany, Hungary and the UK. The project will identify, exchange and develop best practice for the use of restorative justice (“RJ”) with the most serious crimes, particularly those against persons and property attracting a custodial sentence. Research suggests that RJ can have the biggest impact on the lives of victims and offenders where such serious crimeshave been committed.

Kerényi, Mária. About the Jumpstart Programme of the Zöld kakas líceum.

Looking for new solutions is how we found restorative techniques — conflict resolution conferences, to be precise. We’ve learned this method and have successfully employed it to mediate all types of conflicts — conflicts between two students, between a student and a teacher, and also between two teachers. We have succeeded in integrating this method into our daily lives to such an extent that when someone walks down the corridor with a plate of cookies, the students start going, ‘Aha! There’s going be a Face to Face.’ By now, everyone knows what we use this method for, and exactly what is going to happen. (excerpt)

Gönczöl, Katalin. "Developing humane criminal justice systems in democratic societies: An update from Hungary"

This article examines the changes and development of penal policy and community sentencing in Hungary. As a new criminal justice system emerges, including the recently reformed probation service in Hungary, this article argues that democratic societies must hold a careful balance between controlling the behaviour of its citizens, whilst crucially also ensuring their freedom, dignity and human rights. From the position of someone who has been closely involved with these developments and transitions in Hungary, the author questions whether the balance that has been achieved in ‘advanced’ democracies, such as the USA, given the excessive use of imprisonment and punitive sentencing. She argues that an alternative model is in the best interests of all – one that stigmatizes the offence but not the offender.author's abstract

Gorgenyi, Ilona. Future Mediation with Serious Offenses in Hungary.

Victim-Offender Mediation with certain types of offences will exist in Hungary from 1 January, 2007. (Act LI. 2006) Restorative criminal justice is promoted by the taking into account of the victims’ interests during the criminal procedure and the compensation of damages caused by criminal offences by the state. For the sake of this, an act was passed on the assistance of the victims of criminal offences and on the compensation of damages by the state (Act CXXXV, 2005). Furthermore, the offender is urged to restore the state prior to the damage caused by the criminal offence by the widening range of regulations making more favourable judgement possible in the Penal Code, which create a reason for the elimination of punishability or make it possible to mitigate punishment without limits, or e.g. the legal institution of the postponement of accusation in the Code of Criminal Procedure.(excerpt)

Negrea, Vidia. Dreaming of a New Reality for Troubled Youth in Hungary

Vidia Negrea, a psychologist, reflects on personal and professional experiences in Romania, Hungary, and the United States to paint a vision of a restorative approach to troubled youth in Hungary. A Hungarian growing up in Romania, Negrea eventually moved to Hungary and became a psychologist working with delinquent youth. To solve difficult problems concerning such youth, Negrea and others began to experiment with certain restorative approaches and practices. Consequent to contact with Real Justice of the U.S., Negrea undertook an internship with the Community Service Foundation and Buxton Academy in the U.S., and later pioneered a Community Service Foundation in Hungary.

White Ring Public Benefit Association Budapest. Opinions and Recommendations Concerning the Legal Position and Compensation of the Victims of Crimes.

The White Ring Public Benefit Association in Budapest, Hungary, concerned with victim assistance, support, and compensation, offers specific recommendations to improve the legal position of crime victims. The association focuses on the legal position of victims involving suggestions to be incorporated in Hungary's Criminal Code and Procedural Statute. Criminal law modifications to protect victim interests are identified, as well as procedural law proposals. The need for adequate consideration of victim rights in court proceedings is emphasized, and ideas and recommendations on judicial reform are offered. The Association proposes that mediation be considered to reach agreement between victim and offender, and that both criminal code and restorative justice concepts be used to protect and compensate crime victims.

Jorg, A H and Helmut, K and Gunther, K and Jorg, A H. "Victims and Criminal Justice (Volume 2): Legal Protection, Restitution and Support."

The second of 3 volumes presents papers from the VIIth International Symposium on Victimology in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1991. This volume includes 28 papers on legal protection, restitution and support. Topics include: international comparative victim surveys conducted in Austria, Germany, Hungary, and Switzerland; punishment, restitution and reconciliation in Brazil, France, the Netherlands, North America, Spain and elsewhere; and protecting the victim and strengthening his or her legal status in Canada, Germany, Israel, Poland and elsewhere.

. Restorative practices in Hungary -- Transforming schools and prisons.

In April 2010 Vidia Negrea, director of Community Service Foundation (CSF) Hungary, provided an introductory training in facilitating restorative conferences for four different youth group homes in Budapest. This is just the latest development in her work spreading restorative practices in Hungary, which also includes major efforts in schools and prisons. (excerpt)

. Restorative practices in Hungary: An ex-prisoner is reintegrated into the community.

As the representative of Community Service Foundation of Hungary, the Hungarian affiliate of the International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP), I participated in a group session of the Hungarian Crime Prevention and Prison Mission Foundation in summer 2009 (Sycamore Tree Project — www.pfi.org/cjr/stp/introduction — or Zacchaeus Program in Hungary). There I met the governor of Balassagyarmat prison, where inmates were working in groups on issues related to their crimes and exploring ways to repair relationships they had damaged. Some inmates began accepting responsibility for what they had done and were motivated to make things right and earn forgiveness of victims and their families. Prisoners made symbolic reparation in the form of community service within the prison, but there was still a lot to do to create opportunities for offenders to make contact with victims and shed the stigma of their offense by means of direct reparation. Also, prison management believed it important to support processes,acceptable to victimized families and communities, to help prisoners regain control of their lives and prevent reoffending.(excerpt)

. The use of family group conferencing/Decision-making with prisoners in prison probation and during after-care in Hungary.

For years now, the Hungarian Probation Service has considered it one of its main tasks to use the methods of restorative justice more extensively in their work with offenders. These efforts were supported by the fact that the probation service is now responsible for the tasks related to mediation and as such mediation in criminal cases has become an institutional form of restorative justice. The Probation service is working on the implementation of restorative justice principles in other types of cases also, and is trying to ensure that the various techniques and procedures become integral parts of the probation officers' case management methodology. To this end, various experimental projects were launched. One of these was a project which the purpose was to include the method of family group conferencing/decision-making in the case management of probation officers. (excerpt)

. Mediation and the mediation procedure in Hungary for adult offenders.

Victim offender mediation can be applied in both juvenile and adult cases. The legislator defined the kinds of cases the prosecutor or the judge is entitled to refer to mediation. (excerpt)

Gesko, Sandor. Community mediation in Hungary.

After the political changes in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Hungary experienced such developments that fundamentally transformed the values of certain groups of society and their relationships with other groups. This was a common phenomenon in the region. The well-known and familiar relationships of the past, which had been positive and negative but nevertheless had specifically defined the position of various groups in relation to each other, started to deteriorate. (excerpt)

. Resolving school conflicts: "Safe School" initiatives in Hungary.

In the Hungarian Ministry of Justice and Law Enforcement, in addition to drafting and giving opinions on laws, there is an opportunity in accordance with the spirit of public administration as a service provider and as a promoter of innovation, to carry out activities that are still relatively uncommon in Hungary: issuing calls for proposals and managing the implementation of local programmes (excerpt).

István Deák. Political Justice in Austria and Hungary after World War II

Retribution for war crimes, treason, and collaboration initially affected a very large part of both populations, but in Austria it was of short duration; in Hungary it soon became intertwined with the persecution of non-Nazi’s. In effect, both governments hoped to demonstrate to the victorious great powers that the number of fascists and other enemies of the people had been relatively small in their respective countries; that these elements had been dealt with effectively by the police and the courts; and that there was no reason why their country should not now become a full-fledged member of the new world order. By 1948, Austria had begun to rehabilitate its former Nazis; in Hungary, the former Right and far Right was diluted by the ever widening purge of thousands of non-Rightists suspected of hostility to the Stalinist regime. In both cases, and this will be my main argument, the prosecution and punishment of war criminals, traitors, and collaborators gradually lost political and moral significance: in Austria, because it was shown that democracy could flourish even if administered mainly by former Nazis; in Hungary, because the purge of democrats, Social Democrats and even many loyal Communists soon took precedence over the purge of former fascists. (excerpt)

Elster, Jon. Retribution and Reparation in the Transition to Democracy

The contributions in this volume offer a comprehensive analysis of transitional justice from 1945 to the present. They focus on retribution against the leaders and agents of autocratic regimes preceding democratic transitions, and on reparation to victims. Part I contains general theoretical discussions of retribution and reparation. The essays in Part II survey transitional justice in the wake of World War II, covering Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, and Norway. In Part III, the contributors discuss more recent transitions in Argentina, Chile, Eastern Europe, the former German Democratic Republic, and South Africa, with a chapter on the reparation of injustice in some of these situations. The editor provides a general introduction, a brief introduction to each part, and a conclusion that looks beyond regime transitions to vroader issues of rectifying historical injustice. (Publisher’s description)

Slezakova, Zuzana. Introduction of the AGIS project and first results (abstract).

The European Forum for VOM and RJ launched in the beginning of this year an AGIS project called “Meeting the challenges of introducing victim-offender mediation in Central and Eastern Europe�?. Its main objective is to support developments of VOM in Central and Eastern Europe and to improve the exchange around VOM between the West and the East. The project is only possible thanks to the activity of the European Forum members and supporters and the financial support of the European Commission. It runs until November 2005; within its duration following activities are planned: 2 expert meetings and 2 seminars, and a final publication. The first expert meeting took place in June of this year. It concentrated on the current situation in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The second expert meeting (planned for April /May 2005) will build on the first one and will look into what can concretely be done to give an impetus to the policy developments around VOM in CEE. The first seminar coincides with this Conference, and shall serve to bring the Western and the Eastern experts together. The second seminar, planned for September 2005, will present the results of the project and will be an opportunity to discuss how the conclusions and recommendations of the project can be used in a practical way. At the end of the two years a final publication will be published, which will bring together all the information collected during the entire project, analyse the project and will include recommendations for the future of VOM in CEE. As to the first expert meeting: it took place in Vienna, from 24 to 26 June 2004. 14 experts from Eastern and Western European countries and also representatives of the European Forum took part. During the meeting, the situation on VOM in the participating countries was presented. The particular impact was set to the typical factors (both negative and positive) in CEE countries in relation to the implementation of restorative justice. The main results will be presented. Author's abstract.

Wachtel, Ted and McCold, Paul. From restorative justice to restorative practices. Expanding the paradigm.

For the last decade, the International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP), which grew out of the Real Justice program, has been developing a comprehensive framework for practice and theory that expands the restorative paradigm beyond criminal justice (McCold & Wachtel, 2003). Academicians and practitioners tend to do their work within their own distinct disciplines and professions. In contrast, the emerging field of “restorative practices�? offers a common thread to tie together theory and research in seemingly disparate fields of study and practice. The restorative practices framework presented here is the collective effort of the IIRP’s staff and friends around the world. Since the founding of the IIRP’s Real Justice program in 1994, we have attempted to find or develop applicable theory and definition to apply not only to restorative justice, but also to all the related fields that might benefit from this new way of thinking. The fundamental unifying hypothesis of restorative practices is disarmingly simple: that human beings are happier, more productive and more likely to make positive changes in their behavior when those in positions of authority do things with them, rather than to them or for them. This hypothesis maintains that the punitive and authoritarian to mode and the permissive and paternalistic for mode are not as effective as the restorative, participatory, engaging with mode. If this restorative hypothesis is valid, then it has significant implications for many disciplines. For example, contemporary criminal justice and educational disciplinary practices rely on punishment to change behavior. As the number of prison inmates and excluded students grows unabated, the validity of that approach is very much in question. In a similar vein, social workers doing things for and to children and families have not turned back the tide of abuse and neglect. (excerpt)

Boserup, Hans. Advanced techniques and dilemmas in mediation. The issue of autonomy and social control in particular.

Surfacing information to the mediation table is crucial. Information is surfaced to serve the parties rather than serving the mediator. Methods of obtaining and sharing information are diverse. Mediator style in bringing out information and the personalities of the players can change the whole concept of mediation as a practice. Six categories of mediation have emerged as most widely known: 1) Generic, 2) settlement-driven, 3) cognitive systemic, 4) transformative, 5) humanistic and 6) narrative. Some mediators’ methods of uncovering information and defining issues are inconsistent, however, with the individual mediation style chosen. The ability to choose a specific type of mediation suitable for the situation at hand requires the ability to identify and perform the each of the different mediation styles. The “community mediation movement�? of North America (including penal, neighbourhood, and family) gave birth to a similar movement in Europe in the eighties. The first family and victim-offender mediators in Europe naturally shaped the meeting between the parties after that generic community mediation model. As with the rest of the western world, other mediation styles in Europe were developed in order to serve different purposes. When doing commercial or corporate mediation, civil mediation, family mediation, community mediation, VOM (Victim Offender Mediation) or VOC (Victim Offender Conferencing) we can draw on experiences from this variety of styles. In both the generic, transformative, humanistic and narrative mediation models, we attempt to identify feelings, needs and concerns of the parties in order to create an environment for empathy, empowerment and recognition. Author's abstract.