UN to Convene Experts' Meeting on Restorative Justice Basic Principles

The United Nations will convene an Expert Meeting in late October 2001 to review country comments on draft elements of Basic Principles on the Use of Restorative Justice Programmes. The Secretary-General had distributed a diplomatic letter in early December 2000 to all Member States of the UN, as well as to Non-Governmental Organizations. The letter asked whether an international instrument on restorative justice would be useful, whether there were substantive comments on the draft, and whether an expert meeting on the topic would be useful. 

The Secretary-General’s action followed an Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) resolution in mid-2000 suggesting that guidelines on the use of restorative justice may be needed, attaching “preliminary draft elements” of such basic principles, and declaring that if a sufficient number of countries responded an expert meeting would be convened to consider the matter.

According to the UN Centre for International Crime Prevention, 37 countries submitted the requested responses. This was seven more than the number required by the UN before taking further action.

The Government of Canada has indicated that it will host the expert meeting, tentatively scheduled from 29 October to 1 November in Ottawa. 

Background

For a number of years the United Nations has taken notice of restorative justice, mediation, and informal or traditional means of dealing with certain crimes.  See UN documents on restorative justice.  In 1999 ECOSOC adopted a resolution calling for increased use of mediation and restorative justice, and suggesting that the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice consider developing standards to guide nations in using these interventions.

As it turned out, the Alliance of NGOs on Crime Prevention and the Treatment of Offenders had been preparing just such a set of guidelines.  Drawing on the Council of Europe Recommendation Concerning Mediation in Penal Matters as well as standards prepared by other NGOs, the Alliance’s Working Party on Restorative Justice completed a draft set of Basic Principles on the Use of Restorative Justice Programmes in Criminal Matters in late 1999.  These were circulated to countries in anticipation of the Tenth UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Treatment of Offenders.

Restorative justice was a major topic of discussion during the Tenth UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Treatment of Offenders, held in Vienna in early 2000. In the meetings of the Commission on Criminal Justice and Crime Prevention that immediately followed the Congress, 40 nations sponsored a resolution providing for distribution of the draft Basic Principles for comment. This resolution was adopted by the Commission and later by ECOSOC.  See Basic Principles resolution.  It was pursuant to that resolution that the Secretary-General solicited country comment on the need for guidelines on restorative justice.

The Experts’ Meeting

The Government of Canada has agreed to host the Experts' Meeting.  The meeting is tentatively scheduled to be held in Ottawa from October 29 to November 1, 2001.  Although the process for selecting experts for the meeting is not entirely clear at this time, this much is known:

1.  Four experts will be invited from every region, which will ensure equitable geographical representation as provided for in the resolution on Basic Principles.

2.  The purpose of the Experts’ Meeting is to bring together individuals who are well informed about criminal law and criminal justice practices in their country and region and who have credibility with governments.  Accordingly, they are able to represent the perspective from their particular legal system and practice.  (This is not a meeting of the 20 leading international experts on restorative justice.)

3.  The intention is that these experts will return to their respective countries and regions and influence governments to move towards the directions recommended by the Experts’ Meeting.

4.  Resource persons (such as experts in the field of restorative justice) may be invited to make presentations or moderate sessions, but it is the UN Experts (i.e., the core group of 20) who produce the report of the Experts’ Meeting.  It is also possible that representatives of NGOs in consultative status with the UN may be present for the discussion.

5.  The meeting will be directed by a Chairman and its proceedings recorded by a Rapporteur.  Both are generally selected from among the 20 experts.  The UN's Centre for International Crime Prevention, located in Vienna, will likely send one or two representatives to serve in a secretarial function for the meeting.

6.  Experts' Meetings normally last 2 ½ or 3 days.

Persons interested in this process can contribute by suggesting names of possible members of the Experts’ Meeting.  Prison Fellowship International is currently gathering suggestions for experts, particularly from regions other than the Western Europe and Other Group (which includes North America, Australia and New Zealand).  Ideal members will be individuals with knowledge or expertise in restorative justice, a good grasp of the legal traditions and practices in their respective regions, standing and credibility within their regions as experts in criminal justice, and an interest in contributing to development of basic principles. 

15 August 2001

Why is this development good news for the restorative justice community? See The Need for Basic Principles.

For more background information on the Basic Principles, including a point-by-point commentary on each provision, see Proposed UN Basic Principles on Restorative Justice by Daniel W. Van Ness.