Restorative Justice and Victims of Terrorism

Abstract

Restorative justice for victims of terrorism is a rarely researched topic despite various legal instruments dealing with the response to terrorism. A common way to respond to terrorism is either by prosecuting terrorists or by using strategies to prevent terrorism. However, there is also the need to address the pain of those who have been victimised through terrorist acts, and to promote reconciliation between conflicting communities. This latter response is about approaching terrorism and its victims from a restorative justice perspective. Restorative justice is not restricted to minor offences but is also applied to the most serious forms of violent crime as will be discussed in this chapter. This prospect is also reflected in Article 10 of the EU Council Framework Decision of 15 March 2001 on the Standing of Victims in Criminal Proceedings, which does not restrict mediation to minor offences from the outset. From this follows the possibility to apply restorative justice in the context of terrorism. This is why the European Commission asked to undertake research in this respect in order to explore such a restorative justice response to terrorism and its potential for victims of terrorism. Due to limited literature in this respect, the application of restorative justice in cases of terrorism had to be compared with that of other forms of serious violent crime and large-scale conflict situations. Restorative justice practices in these fields are examined in order to highlight their potential for victims of terrorism. The present chapter aims at exploring possibilities of restorative justice practices for victims of terrorism in how to deal with the aftermath of terrorist acts that have affected them either directly or indirectly. Restorative justice is not a completely new idea in this context as examples of victims of terrorism will show. However, what is new with regard to the field of terrorism is that only recently the focus has been shifted from terrorism and the terrorists to the victims of terrorist acts. This late focus on victims of terrorism reflects the subordinate position of the victim in the criminal justice system and the repeated complaints that this system ignores the victim and victims’ needs. In this respect, restorative justice offers an active involvement of victims. Instead of focusing only on the criminal or terrorist act with the response to punish the offender, the aim of restorative justice is first of all to pay attention to the person who has been harmed. Further, its aim is to find a response by trying to repair that harm as far as possible through involvement of both victim and offender, or the community. This approach is not completely new as restorative justice has been rediscovered in Europe and North America in the last 3 decades. It is a worldwide movement and its idea can be traced back through history in many cultures.