There's now a page on the IIRP web site listing all the presentations from the recent world conference. We'll be presenting a weekly series here focusing on papers that have been submitted and linked to this page. In this first installment, it's John Braithwaite's keynote, in which he spoke in general terms about restorative justice, restorative practices, restorative living and related issues.
Braithwaite says that Restorative Justice is about dialogue, active responsibility, healing, building relationships, building human capabilities and prevention of future injustices. However, he argues that while RJ is reluctant "To put a blamed individual and not the problem in the centre" and "To punish," that "Responsive regulation is about the idea that these are things we do resort to when nurturing active responsibility and restorative justice fail and fail again." These ideas are expanded on in Braithwaite's book, Restorative Justice and Responsive Regulation (2002).
Braithwaite also points out that it is possible to learn from Nova Scotia how RJ complements a wide range of social movements, including:
- The Human Rights Movement
- Indigenous Rights Movements
- The Helping Professions: Rehabilitation, Education, Social Work, Law, Policing
- The movement for evidence-based, preventive social policy
- The Womens’ Movement
- The Peace Movement, Mass Movements for Justice through Nonviolence and Democracy in autocratic societies
A PDF of the key points from Braithwaite's talk is available here.
Updated August 18, 2011: See John Braithwaite Revisited
