Webinar: Signs and Symbols of Restorative Justice as a Movement

How can we calibrate the development of the RJ movement? This seminar provides a ‘birds-eye’ view of several locations where the RJ movement has actively taken root within national public discourse. Co-Director of the Zehr Institute, Carl Stauffer will share his reflections from his recent sabbatical travels in New Zealand and Northern Ireland. In New Zealand, the RJ impulse was evident in creative public-private partnerships, Maori efforts at decolonization, and an impressive national response to the Christchurch massacre. Likewise, in Northern Ireland restorative justice is on the move through Project RESTORE - a national response to sexual violence, through a sustained network of local ex-combatant mediation centers, and through community organizing in response to Brexit. Bringing this home, in a publication partnership with California-based Dr. Thalia Gonzalez, we will explore how these dynamics compare and contrast to how RJ is unfolding in the US today.

Guest Bio

Dr. Carl Stauffer teaches Restorative and Transitional Justice at the graduate Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP), at Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia, USA. He concurrently serves as Co-Director of CJP’s Zehr Institute of Restorative Justice and is the Academic Director of the Caux Scholars Program in Switzerland. Stauffer has functioned as founder, director, academic coordinator and instructor for peace and justice institutes on four continents. As a seasoned conflict transformation and peacebuilding practitioner, Stauffer has done consulting and training with organizations such as UNDP, USAID, World Vision, ICRC, Asia Foundation, CRS, Tear Fund, SIDA, Oxfam, and the Ministry of Justice of Jamaica, Ministry of Community Development, Arts & Culture of Trinidad & Tobago, and the Ministry of Safety & Security of South Africa.

Stauffer entered the Restorative Justice field as the first Executive Director of the Capital Area Victim-Offender Reconciliation Program in Richmond, Virginia in 1991. In 1994, Stauffer and his family moved to South Africa under the auspices of the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), a faith-based international relief and development agency. In South Africa, Stauffer worked with multiple transitional justice processes including the Peace Accords, Community-Police Forums, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Local Community Development Forums. From 2000 to 2009, Stauffer was appointed as a Regional Peace Adviser for the Southern Africa region, which took him to 20 African countries and 15 nations in the Caribbean, Middle East, Europe, Asia and the Balkans.
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