Today, the conference on restorative justice in criminal policy, organized by Naif Arab University for Security Sciences and the Public Prosecution in Jordan, was concluded in the Dead Sea region in southern Jordan today.
The conference recommended the need to pay attention to disseminating concepts and ideas of restorative justice, demonstrate its ability to achieve reform and prevention, and pay attention to field studies of the criminal phenomenon.
The conference, which was held over three days and sponsored by His Majesty the King of Jordan, and attended by ten Arab representatives, international organizations and distinguished scientific papers, called for: To prepare a draft of a model law indicative of restorative justice in criminal matters in accordance with international standards and include the curricula of higher legal education, judicial institutes, police academies and concepts of restorative justice to re-instill the values of reconciliation and their applications in criminal justice systems in a way that restores the provisions of Sharia law to their durability.
The conference decided on the necessity of involving victims in restorative justice options, taking into account their material and moral needs when applying that justice, and emphasizing the exclusion of serious crimes that undermine the security and stability of societies from the scope of applying restorative justice.
The conference meetings also concluded by recommending the holding of restorative justice conferences on a regular basis in order to further enrich the relevant scientific aspects and work, with Naif Arab University for Security Sciences being the scientific and technical partner for the Council of the Arab Parliaments Assembly, as well as circulating the conference’s outcomes and scientific recommendations to the Arab Parliaments. The third day of the conference witnessed the holding of four sessions in which 18 restorative justice specialists participated. The first session was titled: “Arab legislation and its keeping pace with developments in criminal policy.”
In the second and third sessions, experts discussed the experiences of the participating countries in the field of restorative justice, including the experience of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Sudan, the Sultanate of Oman, Kuwait, Morocco, Lebanon, and Algeria, while the fourth and final session witnessed a discussion of the recommendations that emerged from the conference sessions.
More than 400 participants, including public prosecutors and members of the public prosecution in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the participating Arab countries, participated in the conference, in addition to a number of Arab experts and specialists in the field of restorative justice, and representatives of many international organizations.