UN Expert Meeting Recommends Declaration of Basic Principles

A United Nations Group of Experts has met to review country comments on whether the UN should adopt international guidelines on restorative justice.  The meeting was held in Ottawa, Canada from 29 October to 1 November, 2001.  The meeting became necessary under UN rules because of the number of countries that commented on a proposed draft of such guidelines circulated at the end of 2000 by the UN Secretary-General.

The Group of Experts agreed that guidelines were necessary, and recommended adoption of a Declaration of Basic Principles on the Use of Restorative Justice Programmes in Criminal Matters that it formulated in the course of its meeting.

History

In April 2000, the Governments of Canada and Italy submitted a resolution to the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice proposing that the UN develop international guidelines to assist countries in adopting restorative justice programmes.  The proposal was made in the aftermath of the Tenth UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Treatment of Offenders that had seen substantial country interest in restorative justice.

The Canadian-Italian resolution proposed that draft elements of a declaration of basic principles on the use of restorative justice be circulated to member states requesting comment on whether such an instrument would be helpful as well as specific comments on the substance of the annexed draft elements.  The Canadians and Italians were joined by 38 other sponsoring countries, and the resolution passed the Crime Commission and later was adopted by the Economic and Social Council.

In December 2000, the Secretary-General issued a note verbale inviting country comments on the Canadian-Italian resolution and its annexed draft elements.  By the end of May 2001, 37 countries had responded, as had 8 NGOs, two entities from within the UN (the Division for the Advancement of Women and the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia) and two UN Institutes.  Under UN rules, 30 country responses is required before it will convene an Expert Meeting to review comments received.

The Government of Canada offered to host the meetings, which were jointly organized by the Canada and the UN Centre for International Crime Prevention.

Meeting of the Group of Experts

Eighteen experts from 16 countries attended the meeting, together with eight observers representing UN Institutes as well as intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations.  David Daubney of Canada was elected Chairman of the meeting.  Mr. Manuel Alvarez of Peru, Ms. Jabu Sishuba of South Africa, and Ms. Galina Toneva-Dacheva of Bulgaria were elected Vice-Chairpersons.  Dr. Kittipong Kittayarak of Thailand was elected as Rapporteur.

Discussions lasted three-and-a-half days.  After opening greetings, introductions, elections of officers and adoption of an agenda, the Expert Group discussed the concept of restorative justice and its use in criminal justice systems in different parts of the world.  Based on this discussion and a review of the comments received by the UN on the draft elements, the Expert Group agreed that it was desirable to develop an international instrument on restorative justice.  It also decided that the draft elements provided a good basis from which to begin developing that instrument.

The Expert Group agreed that the purpose of basic principles was to assist Member States of the UN to adopt and standardize restorative justice initiatives in their justice systems, but not to make these mandatory or prescriptive.  Further, since theories of restorative justice continue to evolve, the Expert Group avoided using prescriptive or narrow definitions that might impede further development.  It added a Preamble in order to explain the concept of restorative justice for those who are not familiar with it.

The remainder of the meeting was devoted to point-by-point discussion of specific provisions of the draft elements of basic principles.  Through modification, substitution, deletion and adoption the Expert Group prepared its own proposed Declaration of Basic Principles.

In the final portion of the meeting, the Expert Group approved a Report on its work of the Expert Group and made final revisions to the Declaration.  The Report and proposed Declaration will be submitted to the eleventh session of the Commission for Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in April 2002.

The official version of the Report and Declaration will be posted on the CICP website during the first quarter of 2002.  

By Daniel W. Van Ness

December 2001