Restorative justice for judges and public prosecutors - Manual for trainers

This Manual is a guidebook for trainers who will lead and facilitate training on restorative justice to judges and public prosecutors in learning about restorative justice. It is a result of a joint effort of several partners and multidisciplinary professionals within the context of project RE-JUSTICE. RE-JUSTICE is a 30-month project, co-funded by the European Union’s Justice Programme, led by Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven) and carried out between November 2019 and April 2022. Through a process of desk and field research and consultation with experts, RE-JUSTICE has developed this training Manual and a training package (handouts, video materials, resources) that were used to provide training on restorative justice to judges and public prosecutors in pilot training sessions in Greece, Italy and Spain. This project involves partners from Belgium, Greece, Italy and Spain. Belgium sees cooperation between KU Leuven, the National Institute for Judicial Training (IGO) and Moderator Forum for Restorative Justice and Mediation, to provide together their technical support through the well-established knowledge and capacities on training and implementation of restorative justice practices. For each of the countries in which the pilot training was given, a partnership between an academic institute and the national judicial training school ensured country-specificity and the long-term sustainability of the training provided. Additionally, endorsement by the national training school confers a level of credibility to the training that is necessary to engage with such judicial professionals. The country-specific knowledge and perspective is supported and coupled by the European expertise brought by the European Forum for Restorative Justice and the European Judicial Training Network. As part of the specialised set of training needs presented by judges and public prosecutors in the context of the Victim’s Directive, this training project focuses on the specific training needs connected to the referral of cases to restorative justice services considering the specific needs of victims (Art. 12, par. 2), and the appropriate, respectful and safe communication with victims, providing them with key information about the availability of restorative justice (Art. 4, par. 1, al. j). The goal of the project is thus, through training, to contribute in a sustainable way to the process of raising awareness, building knowledge and developing skills and attitudes amongst the target groups. Initially and directly, this is done in the three Southern EU MS partners. Ultimately, on the basis of gained experience, RE-JUSTICE aims to contribute to the promotion of the same process across the EU. For approximately 20 years multiple European bodies and actors have highlighted the importance of judges and public prosecutors receiving training on restorative justice. The RE-JUSTICE project addresses this training need, with a specific focus on the topic of criminal law and the implementation of the Victim’s Directive 2012/29/EU.