On September 17th 2019, Dr. Ian Marder was invited to Belarus by the Centre for Law and Mediation to co-facilitate a day of workshops. The purpose of the day was to discuss the potential for a new juvenile justice code and institution in the country.
Around 40 people attended, including criminal justice practitioners, officials from government ministries, mediators and NGO partners, as well as the members of a governmental working group that had recently drafted a preliminary juvenile justice concept for Belarus. This concept proposes a new framework for the diversion of young people from prosecution, and includes mediation among the diversionary mechanisms.
With Diana Ziedina (Head of Mediation, Latvia State Probation Service), Ian gave a series of presentations on the recent research evidence and experiences of juvenile and restorative justice in different countries. Ian then facilitated conversations about what Belarus could learn from these examples, and what kind of capacity and institution building may be needed to implement a progressive and comprehensive juvenile justice framework in the coming years.
The workshop was organised by Prof. Liudmila Bukata on behalf of the Centre for Law and Mediation and UNICEF. UNICEF and the British Embassy in Belarus have been supporting the development of juvenile and restorative justice in the country.
Ian remained in Belarus for the rest of the week to deliver lectures on restorative justice to students at two universities. On Wednesday 18th, Ian gave a lecture introducing restorative justice to undergraduate law students at the Belarusian Statue University Law Faculty in Minsk. The next day, he travelled east to the city of Mogilev, where he delivered a lecture on restorative justice to psychology and child protection students at Mogilev State A. Kuleshov University.