Restorative justice is a paradigm
that was developed over the last twenty years by practitioners working
in the field of criminal justice. Because of these modern roots, the concept
has been almost exclusively identified with criminal justice. In fact,
most people in the field of conflict transformation and peacemaking associate
the term with the role of the state, with individual cases and with the
violation of rules and norms. Restorative justice is ultimately about
the violation of people and relationships, not rules and norms. It is
ultimately about community as well as individuals. The time has come for
this concept to be freed from this narrow identification with criminal
justice and recognized for what it is—a key paradigm for our legal system
both civil and criminal, for mediation and for peacebuilding in all areas
of conflict transformation.
What is the goal of mediation?
What is the goal of conflict transformation? What is the goal of peacebuilding?
Bush and Folger in their book The Promise of Mediation suggested
that the goals were recognition and empowerment. They argue that life
is about relationships and that mediation is much more resolving the immediate
issue in a conflict. Recognition and empowerment are important aspects
of the process, but is not the goal more than this? Is not the goal, as
John Paul Lederach would say, nothing less than reconciliation? For Bush
and Folger, reconciliation is generally beyond the capacity of what they
feel the process can accomplish. For Lederach, reconciliation is where
truth, mercy, justice and peace meet.
In its use of the words "restorative"
and "justice" together, I suggest that restorative justice is
a paradigm that gives definition to what is meant by reconciliation and
describes the goal of conflict transformation and peacebuilding. Reconciliation,
for Lederach, includes most of what is meant by restorative justice, including
the element of justice. Moreover, restorative justice needs to be informed
by the work of people like Lederach, especially in the area of working
with structural injustice and strategic peacebuilding. However, for all
too many reconciliation involves a peaceful coming back together of folks
without emphasizing that such restoration of relationship must be transformed
by justice, making sure that the relationship is a right relationship.
Restorative justice holds together
the two words "restorative" and "justice" in a dynamic
relationship with each other. The goal is restoration or reconciliation.
This is not, however, a restoration that is simply going back to what
was the relationship or the status quo in an unjust community or society.
In restorative justice, relationships are never just between one person
and another. They are always ultimately communal. Relationships need to
be transformed in order to deal with the inherent conflict and, in many
cases, inequities in the relationships. The meaning of "restorative"
is transformed by its association with "justice."
The goal is also justice. However,
this is not retributive justice, which looks to the past to assess guilt
and give out punishment. The metaphorical relation with "restorative"
transforms the concept of "justice" so it is about right relations.
The goal of restorative justice is the fulfillment of the obligations
of relationships. The goal is the transforming of relationships so that
they are closer to the goal of right relations. Restorative justice looks
to the future to heal harm, make right, and reintegrate everyone into
a new community. So the meaning of "justice" is also transformed
by its association with "restoration."
Restorative justice, for me,
is more clearly the place where truth, justice, mercy and peace meet.
Truth is seen as the deep sharing and hearing of each other’s stories
in a way that vindicates and empowers. Justice is seen as acknowledgment
and restitution and respect for the other. It is not retributive, but
restorative. Mercy recognizes that apology and forgiveness are mutually
needed for restoration or reconciliation as well as for the acknowledgment
that is key to justice. Peace becomes a real peace based on right relations.
Ultimately,
as people who are created by their relations,
we need to build community.
Restorative justice is the paradigm for community building.
In all conflict we need to
put the healing of the harm to the victims at the forefront of all our
efforts, recognizing that in most conflicts there are victims on all sides
of the conflict. We need to focus on acknowledgment and restitution as
the approach that is needed for offenders, victims, and communities. We
need to encourage dialogue and mediation, not an adversarial process.
Ultimately, as people who are created by their relations, we need to build
community. Restorative justice is the paradigm for community building.
With any goal, we need to recognize
that there are various waystations on the way to that goal. Being realistic,
and not wanting to create unreasonable expectations, we need to affirm
various points on the continuum of conflict transformation Sometimes an
agreement to cease violence and to create safe spaces is all that can
be accomplished. Other times. relationships can be fully reconciled. Both
results should be celebrated, as well as even lesser accomplishments on
this journey to restorative justice, with the paradigm of restorative
justice being the omega point pulling and guiding the journey.
One of the remarkable aspects
of this paradigm of restorative justice is the way it is recognized and
affirmed by folks from various religious traditions as well as secular
traditions, and from folks from various points on the ideological spectrum.
Albert Einstein believed in a unified theory of physics. Howard Zehr and
his compatriots have offered us the possibility of a unifying paradigm
of conflict transformation. We are all in their debt.
Tom
Porter is an attorney based in Boston, MA. He attended SPI in 1998.
1 Robert A. Baruch Bush and Joseph P. Folger, The Promise of Mediation,
(San Francisco, Jossey-Bass Publichers, 1994), p2.
