Why Restorative Justice? - Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

PRINCIPLES OF RESTORATIVE JUSTICE
the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Article 6 of the Act emphasises the importance of a fair trial and
due process in any court proceedings, and includes the concept of
‘proportionality’, i.e. the use of the least restrictive sentence,
which must also have a stated constructive purpose. International
principles and practice advocate courts being used as a last resort
for juveniles, and diverting young people at an earlier stage.
So there could be a problem with the Youth Justice and Criminal
Evidence Act 1999, which covers England and Wales (see page
56), because it attempts to use restorative justice in a court process,
rather than diverting young people from court. The fact that it is a
court process also raises issues about legal representation and the
role of the victim – are they observers or participants? – which
have yet to be resolved.
Giving victims and offenders such a central role at the
sentencing stage worries those on the bench who feel under
increasing pressure to ensure consistency of sentencing across the
country. However, the same sentence can have very different
impacts on different offenders and victims. Restorative justice is no
more ‘inconsistent’ than traditional justice. It operates within the
law; courts can oversee the limits of the reparation or compensation
agreed and prevent excesses in any direction.
The aims of restorative justice are to put things right for the
victim and to help offenders take responsibility for what they have
done; therefore it should actually provide a more satisfactory outcome
for many victims and offenders than they might have
experienced otherwise. It is worth noting that other members of
the Council of Europe, like Germany and Austria, have had the
European Convention as part of their legal systems for decades.
They have implemented more far-reaching restorative justice
measures than the UK. The spread of victim/offender mediation in
Europe is also part of a world-wide momentum towards restorative
processes. 3
3 K. Akester, Restoring Youth Justice (London, Justice, 2000) and conversations and
correspondence with Kate Akester, Justice; Jim Dignan, University of Sheffield; Rob Mackay,
University of Dundee; Guy Masters, Goldsmiths College, University of London; Martin
Wright, July 2000.
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