The international workshop “Restorative Justice in Belarus” was held on September 19 at the Mogilev State A. Kuleshov University. The event was attended by students and teachers of the faculty of pedagogy and psychology of childhood. The speakers were Jan Marder (Ireland, Maynooth University) and Diana Ziedina (Latvia, University of Latvia).
During the seminar, the participants examined in detail various aspects of mediation, got acquainted with the main regulatory legal acts of modern European justice. As part of his speech, Jan Marder proposed a psychological game to the participants of the conference, during which the main acting characters were determined — conditional “intruder” and “victim”. The speaker described what happened to the “victim” and suggested that the students decide whether to use mediation in a particular case (one of the alternative dispute resolution technologies — ed.).
The senior lecturer of the department of psychology and correctional work Arseniy Janashia comments:
“In the near future, Belarus plans to adopt the concept of restorative justice. This is done so that punitive measures of the criminal or administrative code are not immediately applied to minors. That there was an opportunity to apologize to the injured party and thereby remove the charges. Obviously, this is necessary in order not to cripple the fate of the child. The offender will have an option: be punished in the form of community service, or consult a psychologist, talk with the injured party and repent, apologize. This is a chance for the offender.”