The “European Best Practices of Restorative Justice in the Criminal Procedure” project was approved by the Board of the EUCPN and included it in its work programme in September 2007. The general objective of the project is – in line with the objective No. 2.6 of the Hague Programme (2005/C53/01) to professionalise and strengthen the EUCPN and that it should provide expertise and knowledge to develop effective crime prevention policies – to collect and disseminate those practices implemented at any stage of the criminal procedure (pre-trial, trial, implementation of sentences) in the member states of the EU, which could be drawn under the conception of restorative justice. This objective would be achieved using the professional connections of the EUCPN.

In order to seek funding for the project, the Ministry of Justice and Law Enforcement of Hungary applied for grant available for the implementation of the specific programme „Prevention of and Fight against Crime” in 2007. The European Commission decided to award the grant in June 2008.

The professional parts of project JLS/2007/ISEC/FPA/C1/033 are delivered by the staff of the Ministry of Justice and Law Enforcement working in the field of community crime prevention and the national experts of certain member states reached and involved through the EUCPN.

After a long preliminary phase an international conference took place on 27-29 April 2009 in Budapest, as the main event of the project. The conference was attended by around 150 people: experts from 15 member states (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden) and Croatia, representatives of 4 more member states (Estonia, France, Latvia, Spain) and around 110 Hungarian professionals participated at the conference. The composition of the audience was of policy makers, law practitioners (judges, prosecutors), law enforcement officers, probation officers, victim support and child protection professionals as well as of researchers, and civil practitioners.

The invited European and Hungarian experts presented and discussed the restorative practices at plenary sessions and workshops. The programme of the conference followed the stages of the criminal procedure and was completed with restorative practices applied in crime prevention.

The results of the project and the conference will be disseminated through a publication and will be available for both the European and the Hungarian professional audience from October 2009.

Click here to see the slideshow reporting on the status of the project, which was presented at the EUCPN Board meeting on 4 June 2009 in Pilsen.

Click here for more on the conference.

Project JLS/2007/ISEC/FPA/C1/033

Co-financed by the Specific Programme "Prevention of and Fight against Crime" 2007 of the European Commission

Az Európai Bizottság "Bűnmegelőzés és bűnözés elleni küzdelem" 2007 egyedi programjának támogatásával