Ukraine

Restorative Justice Initiative

UCCG has launched the Restorative Justice Initiative to develop and institutionalize the movement to reform the judicial sector in Ukraine. This pilot project is being supported by European Commission, British Embassy in Ukraine and the Institute for Sustainable Communities and has been financed for three years (2003-2005).

The initiative seeks to introduce Restorative Justice into the Ukrainian Legal System by developing a cadre of specialists able to advance the project and pilot the Victim-Offender Mediation Programme. This team of specialists is designing and developing a model applicable to the Ukrainian legal system, and once developed, will implement and institutionalize relevant models into the legal system to supplement the existing system. The pilot project is now implemented in Kyiv in partnership with The Supreme Court of Ukraine, Academy of Judges, Ministry of Justice and General Prosecution Academy. This provides better opportunities for UCCG and Ukrainian Legal System officials to evaluate and monitor the process. The project is divided into five phases and run over three years.

The first phase of the project resulted already in developing a pilot model designed to establish a set of rules and procedures by which cases are outsourced and a number of practitioners (mediators) trained in victim-offender mediation. In addition, in this first phase of the project a web site was created that contains information on Restorative Justice and it's development process in Ukraine. The second phase is the implementation of the system as a pilot project, which was done on the basis of Darnitskiy District Court in Kiev. The third phase includes an assessment of the pilot model and presentation of results at Evaluation Seminar and the development of the report, including recommendations on the future progress. During the fourth phase, which is running now, the improved model will be tested in the regions of Ukraine. In the fifth and final stage, the Ukrainian Centre for Common Ground will evaluate the results of the test period and present the model and its possible modifications at the Open Conference on Restorative Justice Approaches.

Concept of Restorative Justice

The Restorative Justice approach exhibits key elements that make it a promising alternative system. "Restorative Justice" is based on the concept of providing adequate restitution to the victim for the physical and emotional harm caused by the crime as well as the restoration of the sense of responsibility for the offender. The latter is especially important in juvenile cases. Victim-offender mediation is one of the most pervasive forms of Restorative Justice. It has been passed into law in a majority of European countries as a modern approach to achieving criminal justice.

For example, the Council of The European Union adopted the Framework Decision on 15 March 2001 on the standing of victims in criminal proceedings, Article 10, which reads: "1). Each Member state shall seek to promote mediation in criminal cases for offences that it considers appropriate for this sort of measure. 2). Each Member state shall ensure that any agreement between the victim and offender reached in the course of such mediation in criminal cases can be taken into account."

Moreover on July 24, 2002, the UN Economic and Social Council adopted a resolution encouraging countries to use Basic Principles on the Use of Restorative Justice Programmes in Criminal Matters in developing and implementing restorative justice in their countries.

Ukraine is still lagging behind other countries in the process of developing modern views of crime and punishment and especially in adopting restorative approaches to crime, which are increasingly recognized as essential in most western countries.

What is Victim-Offender Mediation?

The growing interest in victim-offender mediation arises from its capacity to facilitate a real and understandable sense of justice for those most directly affected by crime: victims, victimized communities, and offenders. Victim-Offender Mediation Programmes, also known as Victim-Offender Reconciliation Programmes, bring offenders face-to-face with the victims of their crimes, with the assistance of a trained mediator who is often a community volunteer. Crime is personalized as offenders learn the human consequences of their actions. Victims (who are largely ignored by the justice system) have the opportunity to speak their minds and express their feelings to the one who most needs to hear them, contributing to the healing process of the victim by getting their questions answered. Offenders take meaningful responsibility for their actions by negotiating a restitution agreement with the victim to restore the victims' losses in whatever way possible.

The Goal of the Project

To develop a pilot Restorative Justice program in Kiev that would provide opportunities for restoration to victims and offenders and would serve as a model for evaluation and future institutionalization process.

Project tasks

• Establish partnership relations with Justice System Institutions

• Raise the awareness of Restorative Justice Approaches within The Legal System of Ukraine

• Train a team of victim-offender mediators for the pilot program

• Develop a mechanism to determine how cases would be outsourced and proceed in alliance with judicial procedures

• Develop an evaluation mechanism to assess the effectiveness of the process and to adopt it so as to address the needs of the society and justice system in the best way

• Disseminate information about the results of the project through the Internet and publicize and distribute a final report

• Prepare an Open Conference on Restorative Justice Approaches.

Partners in the project

• The Supreme Court

• The Prosecutor General's Office Academy

• Kiev City State Juvenile Affairs Services

• Academy of Judges

• School of Social Work of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy

• Public Centre for Legal and Judicial Reform in Moscow (Russia)

• Polish Centre of Mediation in Warsaw (Poland)

The progress achieved by June 2004

20 volunteers have been trained as victim-offender mediators and have been gathering every week to develop their professional qualification through role playing and discussing real mediation cases. 12 of them now prepared to conduct trainings on Basic Mediation Skills.

A group of experts in legislation and victim-offender mediation (VOM) including representatives of UCCG, Ministry of Interior Affairs, Academy of Prosecution Office of Ukraine and Academy of Judges conducted an assessment and developed a mechanism for the use of VOM within the Ukrainian legal system This mechanism received positive. expert opinion from The Prosecutor General's Office Academy and was supported by the Supreme Court of Ukraine.

UCCG has established partnerships with the Academy of the General Prosecutor's Office (GPO), Academy of Judges of Ukraine (AJU), the Supreme Court of Ukraine (SCU), Ministry of Justice of Ukraine (MJU), Ministry of Family and Youth Affairs of Ukraine (MFYU) and Darnitskiy and Desnyanskiy District Courts in Kiev.

The Monitoring Committee of Ukrainian Centre for Common Ground has conducted a survey on current Restorative Justice model and possible ways for its improvement.

Presentations of Restorative Justice pilot program were made for investigation officers within The Prosecutor General's Office Academy of Ukraine, for school administrators in one district of Kiev, for the Supreme Court of Ukraine, and for the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. Also several half-day workshops on Alternative Dispute Resolution were delivered to the listeners of Academy of Judges of Ukraine. 5-days training on Basic Mediation Skills was conducted for judges selected from all regions of Ukraine.

At the beginning of December 2003 one-week study-tour to Poland for 6 Ukrainian representatives of judicial and executive powers took place. The visit of Ukrainian specialists to Poland was aimed at experience exchange in the sphere of mediation for its further implementation, adjustment and development in Ukraine. The book "Mediation Development in Ukraine. Polish-Ukrainian Cooperation" has been also compiled and published as a result of a fruitful cooperation between the Polish Centre of Mediation and the Ukrainian Centre for Common Ground, and of the exchange of Restorative Justice experience between representatives of the Polish and Ukrainian legal systems. The book presents experience of mediation programs held in both countries, illustrates the collaboration between Poland in Ukraine in realization of Restorative Justice ideas, and provides readers with Polish, Ukrainian and international normative documents relevant to use of mediation in criminal matters.

On February, 2004 UCCG in cooperation with the Supreme Court and Ministry of Justice of Ukraine has organized the Evaluation Seminar "Restorative Justice Implementation in Ukraine". It gathered Ukrainian, Russian, Moldavian, Belarus and Polish representatives of judiciary system and NGOs, who develop and implement victim - offender reconciliation programs. Two major goals of the seminar are to exchange experience in practical development of Restorative Justice in their countries and to assess its implementation in Ukraine. After this seminar, the Plenum of the Supreme Court of Ukraine (devoted to the problems of juvenile crime) has adopted Resolution, which recommends Ukrainian judges to increase the use of reconciliation procedures in criminal cases, to recommend mediation to victims and offenders and to cooperate with NGOs that provide Victim-Offender Mediation services.

We has already published the book "Changing Lenses: a New Focus for Crime and Justice" written by one of the main Restorative Justice ideologists Howard Zehr. Translation has been done from English into Ukrainian with aim of free dissemination among representatives of legal system of Ukraine including judges, prosecutors, investigators etc.