European Union

On April 3-4th, 2008, the conference “RESTORATIVE APPROACH IN THE JUVENILE CRIME PREVENTION AS AN ASSET FOR BUILDING A SAFE COMMUNITY” will be held in Kyiv. The goal of the conference is to assist with distribution of the Community Restorative Justice Centres model implementation experience aimed at the prevention of juvenile crime.

The conference is organized by the Ukrainian Centre for Common Ground jointly with its partners in the “Development of the Community Restorative Justice Centres Network” Project implemented with financial support of the EU TACIS Programme, as well as with partners on the “Police Strategies on the Juvenile Crime Prevention in Ukraine” Project implemented with support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. The conference is also supported by the Ministry for Internal Affairs of Ukraine.

The conference agenda will include presentations of the successful community experience on the Restorative Justice Centres (RJC) creation and functioning, review of the international experience on the juvenile crime prevention models building in community, discussions on the mechanisms of the local authorities’ involvement into RJC development. Discussions in sections will be held as “master circles” presenting the restorative justice tools. Participants will have an opportunity to get acquainted with different methods aimed at juvenile crime prevention and capacity building for the social support system in communities, particularly such as mediation in criminal cases, school mediation, “support circles” in communities, family group conferences etc.

Restorative Justice (RJ) is a new approach to the conflict resolution aimed at justice reparation and making amends caused by crime. Unlike within the judicial system, where the court identifies the extent of the harm done, during participation in the RJ programme victims can identify the level of their interests violation themselves. Restorative justice programmes complement the official justice system, and the restorative approach principles form the basis for the probation services and juvenile justice systems work.

In Ukraine the restorative justice implementation has started in 2003 as a civic initiative. To date, the restorative justice implementation in Ukraine has been conducted with support of the Supreme Court; Academy for Judges; Ministry of Justice; Ministry for Family, Youth and Sports Affairs; General Prosecution Office; National Academy of the General Prosecution Office; State Department for Execution of Punishment; Ministry of Internal Affairs; Department of Juvenile Criminal Police, and other organizations. Now the network of non-governmental organizations working on the Restorative Justice Centres creation in their communities consists of 12 communities: Bila Tserkva city (Kyiv Oblast), Drohobych (Lviv Oblast), Zhmerynka (Vinnytsya Oblast), Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Lviv, Luhansk, Odesa, Simferopol, Sumy, Kharkiv and urban village Krasnohvardiyske (AR Krym).

Successful development of the restorative justice programmes is a persuasive example of the possible effective cooperation between governmental and non-governmental organizations on the way of the European legal norms adoption. On December 20th, 2006, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the Complex Crime Prevention Programme for 2006-2008 that is aimed at provision of the effective conducting of the mutual crime prevention measures and elimination of the reasons that have caused the crime commitment. Particularly, it is planned to improve the legislation in this sphere as well as to raise the local authorities’ responsibilities on the safe environment provision for communities and improvement of the coordination mechanisms on the community involvement into the crime prevention strategies.

Contact person: Lada Kanevska, Vice-President of the Ukrainian Centre for Common Ground

Tel. (044) 537 10 07, fax (044) 280 39 18, mob. (050) 549 30 98, e-mail – lada@uccg.org.ua,

www.commonground.org.ua, as well as www.rj.org.ua