RESTORATIVE JUSTICE

RESTORATIVE JUSTICE RESTORATIVE JUSTICE By Erum Sajjad Gil, Advocate, Lahore Restorative Justice has been one of the most significant development in criminal justice and criminological practice and thinking over the past two decades. The term Restorative Justice has come to mean different things to different people. Restorative Justice is a theory of justice that emphasis repairing the harm caused or revealed by criminal behaviour and it is believed to be best accomplished through cooperative process. It's popularity has seen it being pulled in divergent and often competing directions as it is shaped to meet the interests and ideologies of different groups, professions and organizations as seen Restorative Justice has become an ambitious but ambiguous project. One well-established definition of Restorative Justice is of `a process where by the parties with a stake in a particular offence come together to resolve collectively how to deal with the aftermath of the offence and its implications for the future' (Marshal). This definition identifies three central elements in Restorative Justice, (1) Stake holders (2) Value of participation (3) and the emphasis upon restorative outcome. The Stake holders in Restorative Justice is not just the State and crime is not considered as an offence against the State only but the parties with a Stake in an offence include not only the victim and the offenders but also the families and the supporters of each and other members of their respective communities who may be effected or who may be able to contribute to the prevention of future offending. These Stake holders are believed to be more directly affected by given acts of harm than is the State. In Restorative Justice seeks to limit the role of criminal justice professionals and prefers to empower the victims, offenders, family members and others as partners in the justice process. Secondly in Restorative Justice participation is greatly emphasized and this usually requires that before the process begins offenders accept their involvement and responsibility for the offence. This may take the form of a guilty plea or some other acceptance of guilt. The restorative process emphasis the importance of offender and victim participation. Restoring a sense of control to the central parties is a key aspect of the restorative process, in the belief that this will encourage offender to be more accountable for their actions and to encourage others to take responsibility for ensuring the successful implementation of any agreement reached. Thirdly the Restorative Justice holds out for and appeals to particular restorative out comes or resolutions for the harm caused by the crime to all those directly or indirectly effected is an ultimate aim of restorative interventions the intention is that outcomes should seek to heel relationships. In practice restorative outcomes often include apologies, compensations or direct reparation to the victim for the harm and an indirect reparation to the wider community. One of the hopes of Restorative Justice is that there will be some reconciliation or understanding between the parties. Formal Courts stigmatize offenders and make it difficult to lead lives as responsible members of the community. The belief is that the best way to control crime is to induce in offenders a sense of shame for the wrongfulness and harm caused by their actions, but to maintain dignity and respect for them as people whilst reintegrating them into the law-abiding community. Islam believes in Restorative Justice as well and the theory of Restorative Justice that has recently gained popularity internationally has always been the basis of Islamic Justice. In Islamic Justice the victim or his legal heirs have been given the choice to take their revenge from the offender or pardon him in the name of Allah. The Islamic principles of justice have now been inducted in the statutes of Pakistan and even in serious crimes as murder the victim or his heirs have a choice to compromise with the offender by taking compensation from the offender or pardoning him in the name of Allah or punishing the offender if the victim or the heirs of the victim are not willing to compromise. Certain ambiguity is found in the Pakistan criminal statutes as the law applied is not totally Islamic and is a combination of the British and the Islamic law, so for example even if the victim or his legal heirs pardon an offender he still is convicted under law that diverges from the Islamic principles for example an offender sentenced to death will not be allowed to compromise with the legal heirs if the offender has been sentenced under the Anti-Terrorism law in addition to the Pakistan Penal Code. Hence such ambiguity should be eliminated and the legislature while making law should have in mind the principles of the Islamic Justice because times have proven that the Islamic laws are not outdated but in reality are the closest to the human nature and psychology.