European Forum for Restorative Justice
EFRJ
The European Forum for Restorative Justice (EFRJ) is the leading European network for supporting the development of restorative justice (RJ) in Europe.
ID: 987246143529-12
Lobbying Activity
Meeting with Hana Jalloul Muro (Member of the European Parliament, Committee chair)
12 Sept 2025 · Restaurative Justice
Response to European Judicial Training Strategy 2025 - 2030
3 Sept 2025
The European Forum for Restorative Justice (EFRJ) welcomes the European Commissions call for evidence on the 20252030 Judicial Training Strategy. We support its focus on digitalisation, which aims to equip justice professionals with the skills needed to address the challenges and opportunities arising from the accelerating shift to digital justice. At the same time, we urge the Commission to use this strategy as a unique opportunity to strengthen knowledge of EU law and ensure its correct and uniform application across Member States. In line with the Victims Directive (2012/29/EU), which requires Member States to facilitate referrals to restorative justice services (Art. 12.2) and to ensure that victims are informed about these services (Art. 4, Art. 25.2), judicial training must actively include restorative justice. In most EU Member States, judges and prosecutors play a key role in referring cases to restorative justice services, but their limited knowledge and awareness is a major factor restricting access to these services. The Council of Europe Recommendation CM/Rec(2018)8 further underlines the responsibility of judicial authorities to create real opportunities for restorative justice, noting that too many victims and offenders remain excluded from its proven benefits. We therefore recommend: 1. Including restorative justice in the judicial training offer to ensure compliance with EU law and to strengthen judges and prosecutors capacity to meet victims needs and rights. 2. Recognising restorative justice facilitators as a specific target group within the strategy (alongside with probation officers, mediators and prison staff), given their integral role in criminal justice systems. 3. Building on existing expertise, including the EFRJs training materials developed through the RE-JUSTICE project (20192021). By embedding restorative justice into the Judicial Training Strategy, the European Commission can help to equip justice professionals across the EU to better support victims and offender needs, to promote meaningful access to restorative justice and safeguard the uniform application of EU law. For more detailed information on our recommendations, we are attaching the EFRJ feedback submitted to the European Commission in April 2024 in response to the call assessing the 202124 EU Strategy on Judicial Training and identifying new training needs.
Read full responseResponse to Taking stock of the Judicial Training Strategy 2021-2024
30 Apr 2024
The European Forum for Restorative Justice (EFRJ) would like to take this opportunity to call the European Commission to include restorative justice in the new Judicial Training Strategy. In particular with regard to: I. Judicial practitioners to be trained in restorative justice II. Restorative justice professionals to be included as target group of the Strategy III. Enabling European level professional organisations with knowledge on certain areas to offer trainings and/or study visits under the EJTN structure We provide more information in the attached document. The EFRJ remains at full disposal to share more information and to assist in any way it is needed.
Read full responseMeeting with Saskia Bricmont (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)
16 Nov 2023 · Restorative justice and victims Rights
Response to Amendment of the EU rules on victims’ rights
26 Sept 2023
The European Forum for Restorative Justice (EFRJ) very much welcomes the European Commissions proposed amendments to the Victims Rights Directive (hereinafter VRD) that we consider a step forward in strengthening the rights, protection and support of victims in the EU. However, we are concerned about the missed opportunity to include a more ambitious revision of the restorative justice provisions in the VRD. The revision of the VRD presents a unique opportunity for the European Union to revise the restorative justice (RJ) provisions in line with the significant developments occurred in the last decade in the field of restorative justice and victims rights. There is clear evidence that restorative justice services play a critical role in promoting recovery, reparation, empowerment and justice for a broad spectrum of victims. Restorative justice is inherently victim-centric and child-friendly, and it aligns with the objectives of the VRD and with the European Commission's proposed amendments. Compelling evidence further indicates that restorative justice effectively addresses all five major categories of victims' needs recognised by the European Commission. These encompass: respectful treatment and recognition as victims, protection from retaliation and further harm, fostering lasting psychological well-being, ensuring access to justice and participation, and providing compensation and restoration. We urge the European Union to seize the opportunity to revise the VRD to ensure effective and equal access to high-quality restorative justice services for all victims of crime who freely want to access such services. In many Member States, restorative justice services are inaccessible to many victims. Among the main barriers are exclusion criteria based on offence type or offender characteristics, victims lack of information about restorative justice, and limited knowledge about restorative justice among professionals that come into contact with victims and who consequently refer few cases to RJ services. We also argue that synergies between restorative justice services and victim support services should be enhanced by the VRD, promoting stronger cooperation while preventing competition between the two services. To address these issues, we present two distinct proposals to amend the VRD and increase the accessibility of restorative justice. Proposal 1 Establishing a right of access to restorative justice services (option A, the strongest option); or, (as a less strong yet viable alternative to option A) defining restorative justice as a generally available service for all victims as per the CoE Recommendation CM/Rec(2018)8 on restorative justice (option B); Proposal 2 Regardless of whether Proposal 1, options A or B, is supported, we recommend both: Enhancing the European Commission's proposed revisions by incorporating restorative justice into relevant EC amendments (First Component of Proposal 2), and by amending certain existing articles on restorative justice (Second Component of Proposal 2). Our arguments are evidence-based and supported by relevant international (legal and policy) documents from the European Union, the Council of Europe and the United Nations. In the document attached we present concrete (drafting) suggestions for each above mentioned proposals as well as detailed references to research findings and to international documents on restorative justice.
Read full responseResponse to Preventing and combatting gender-based violence
18 May 2022
The European Forum for Restorative Justice (EFRJ) highly welcomes and supports the proposed Directive on violence against women and domestic violence (VAW). It is a very important step forward in preventing such crimes, to strengthen victims’ access to justice and to support their appropriate protection throughout the EU. Nevertheless, the EFRJ wants to stress that the proposed Directive on VAW does not sufficiently address some important aspects of victims’ needs - namely empowering victims of crime by supporting their agency, free choice and recovery. As the EU Strategy on Victims’ Rights (2020-2025) recognized, restorative justice (RJ) is important in this regard, as it provides victims with a safe environment to make their voice heard and to attend to their healing process.
The EFRJ and its Working Group on RJ and Gender Based Violence would like to draw the attention of the European Commission (EC) to the importance of RJ in all matters that involve victims and offenders of violence against women and domestic violence. In particular, the EFRJ calls on the EC to make RJ available for victims that freely want to access RJ and to guarantee high safeguards for victims participating in RJ.
As research and standards of best practice continue to improve, the benefits that a restorative process can have for victims of domestic or sexual violence are becoming increasingly recognised and appreciated. Moreover, several new international (EU, CoE and UN) legal instruments and guidelines have demonstrated a growing consensus among the global community in favour of a wider applicability of RJ in criminal matters and beyond.
Despite the benefits, RJ services must be prepared to understand and address the risks involved in cases of VAW. These cases should follow high standards that guarantee safeguards for victims.
In the Handbook on Restorative Justice Programmes (2020) the United Nations cites a satisfaction survey that reports that 83 per cent of victims of sexual violence who had participated in a restorative justice process were satisfied with the overall process. Very significantly the UN Handbook recognises the risk of second victimisation and that the “vulnerability of victims of sexual violence raises concerns about if, when and how to approach the topic of restorative justice with them” but that “failing to discuss the possibility of restorative justice with the victims may deprive them of an opportunity to heal”.
The EFRJ recommends that the European Commission includes the following in the proposed Directive combating violence against women and domestic violence:
I. Secure the availability of RJ for victims, their right to be informed about the existence of these services and the opportunity to freely choose to participate or not, within and beyond criminal procedures, taking into account their individual needs.
II. Establish and guarantee provisions related to safeguards and high standards of practice for RJ services dealing with cases of VAW.
The attached position paper presents concrete recommendations on how RJ could be included in the proposed Directive on VAW. Our arguments are evidence-based as well as sustained by relevant international (legal and policy) documents.
The position paper also presents key aspects concerning the use of RJ in particularly sensitive cases such as violence against women and domestic violence. It offers an overview of recent research findings related to victims and RJ (in particular victims of VAW), to RJ and desistance from crime, and to the main EU and international documents concerning RJ and victims’ rights.
Read full responseResponse to Amendment of the EU rules on victims’ rights
21 Dec 2021
The European Forum for Restorative Justice (EFRJ) welcomes this initiative on the Revision of the EU victims’ rights acquis.
The EFRJ participated to the evaluation of the Victim’s Rights Directive (VRD) by submitting a position paper on the evaluation of the implementation of the restorative justice (RJ) provisions of the VRD. The position paper is mainly based on information collected via a survey of the EFRJ conducted in 2021. We received 45 answers to the survey from RJ experts, service providers and policy makers covering 18 EU and other European countries.
The EFRJ position paper draws the attention to the importance of RJ in addressing victims’ rights and in meeting victims’ needs as shown by relevant research about the effectiveness of RJ for victims (as well as for offenders and communities). In order to ensure the benefits of RJ for victims, an equal access to RJ services needs to be guaranteed for all victims of crime. The position paper presents some limitations or limiting effects of the VRD in its current form to enable victims’ rights fully regarding RJ. Without underestimating the relevance of the VRD for the development of RJ in the EU, removing the obstacles for an effective implementation of the VRD is a first step towards a greater accessibility for victims to RJ services. The position paper presents concrete recommendations in this regard.
Related to the Call for evidence for an Impact Assessment, the EFRJ would like to recommend the Policy Option 2: Legislative initiative amending the Victims’ Rights Directive, Sub-option (b) - Broader scope of the legislative amendments. To improve victims’ access to information concerning RJ services is key, as well as to strengthen multiagency cooperation. Furthermore, victim support services could have a key role in informing and assisting those victims that want to participate in RJ practices. Concerning victims’ access to compensation, we would like to recommend a profound review of the Directive, taking into account a more holistic approach presented by the Milquet report (2019), that recognises RJ as valuable reparation to support victims to cope with the harm caused by crime. Additionally, as the VRD does not create any obligation for Member States either to create RJ services, where these are lacking, nor does it establish a right of access to RJ for victims, we would support that the revision of the VRD takes into account these improvements.
Beside the VRD, further initiatives promoted by the EU institutions are demanded for supporting a greater accessibility and availability of RJ services. In particular:
(1) An EU binding act that could, firstly, guarantee the access for victims (and offenders) to RJ services at any time and in any case and, secondly, could address many of the obstacles mentioned in our position paper.
(2) Include RJ as a topic in EU awareness campaigns on victims’ rights.
(3) The inclusion of RJ in other sectorial legislations in the field of criminal justice, as well as social policy area. In particular, the EFRJ is currently advocating for the inclusion of RJ in EU policies and legislative acts concerning: gender based violence, hate crime, victims of terrorism, child friendly justice, environmental justice.
(4) Provide (financial) support to RJ services as foreseen by the EU Strategy on Victims’ Rights.
We would like to recall the recent Venice Declaration on the role of RJ in criminal matters aiming at promoting the practice of RJ, adopted by the Ministers of Justice of the Member States of the Council of Europe (December 2021). Member States are encouraged to consider granting the right of access to RJ and to actively raise awareness of RJ nationwide.
The EFRJ would like to further offer its expertise by participating to the public consultation, as a member of the EU Platform on victims’ rights and would further welcome to participate to the targeted consultations as foreseen in the Call.
Attached: EFRJ position paper
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