Restorative Justice Week 2009

"How does your faith community address and respond to the human needs of its members who are harmed and affected by crime, whether they be victims, offenders, or community members, i.e. neighbours, friends, associates?"

A Quaker Approach to Restorative Justice
Meredith Egan

Quakers (the Religious Society of Friends) believe that because of our human experiences, our mortality and our imperfection, we are destined to hurt one another, to experience tragedy. How we reconcile within imperfect relationships becomes a sacred act; we are called to love and understand one another especially when it is most difficult, with Divine assistance to be curious and graceful and forgiving, and thereby to know God even more fully.

In this way, and through our ongoing revelations from God, discerned in community through silence, we endeavour to be Friends. We seek to embody the restorative, to be in conflict in loving, compassionate ways. We strive to serve one another when harm happens, working to heal the wounds, we meet one another's most urgent needs (both amongst our Community of Friends, and amongst the community of life), and encourage one another to move forward in life, steadily seeking Truth even in and through our most difficult experiences.

A Muslim Approach to Restorative Justice
Shakir Sheikh

Restorative justice in The Holy Quran stresses compassion, mercy, and forgiveness, in the conduct of affairs among human beings. Conflict resolution is attained through acts of courageous will, by the victim and offender, and all concerned, to patiently pursue grievances for crimes committed. Initially, for the parties concerned, this is extremely difficult to think of or even accept, but the victim must be determined to patiently persevere, with willingness, in preparing both mentally and spiritually, to meet with the offender. Equilibrium, hopefully, will be achieved at the moment of meeting, where mitigation of anxiety and negative emotions in the victim is required to face the guilt ridden offender, who hopefully is full of remorse and ready to make amends for his/her wrongdoings.

If the offender shows no remorse, but his/her family is fully prepared to restore the honour and integrity of the victim, with the necessary restitution, then retributive justice may be required. If the offender shows remorse, regret, and a change of heart and attitude, through understanding his/her criminal behaviour, after deep reflection and consultation with family, or important others, then with willingness and humility, he will make amends for his unsavoury behaviour. This is the beginning of re-integration into the community, with truth and honesty of purpose.

A Buddhist Approach to Restorative Justice
Bridget Mackenzie

Buddhists believe that all beings have Buddha Nature, which is the potential to become fully awakened, compassionate beings. We realize that all beings are interdependent and interconnected in this life and so in our unawakened state we are all potential offenders and potential victims. As Buddhists we accept the principle of karma or cause and effect, which means that we are responsible for our actions and we experience the effects of both our positive and negative actions in this life or in future lives. Violence breeds violence, therefore we work at developing compassion for all rather than revenge or retaliation. To this end, we cultivate the transformation of our ignorance and delusions into loving kindness and generosity towards all beings including ourselves. Restorative justice based on honest, open-minded and compassionate encounters between victims and offenders is consequently very much in accordance with Buddhist perspective.

Please register for the National Symposium on Restorative Justice
to be held in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, November 18th - 20th, 2009
Contact Noreen Byrne at (709) 631-0069, cms@nfld.net