International Restorative Justice Week 2025 at RJ4All
Evidence-Based Restorative Justice: What Works for Young People
International Restorative Justice Week 2025, run by Restorative Justice for All International Institute (RJ4All) from 16th to 22nd November, brought together practitioners, researchers, and community members from around the world to uphold the significance of evidence-based restorative justice practices, especially for young people. This year’s theme provided an opportunity to revisit the quality of existing restorative justice services, assessing what young people need and the current challenges that restorative justice can address, whether within formal justice systems or in communities.
Why Evidence-based Restorative Justice?
Our focus on young people and evidence-based practice was deliberate. Across the 155 Youth Justice Service Teams located across 9 regions in England and Wales, only one-third of Youth Justice Service Teams currently use restorative justice (Banwell-Moore, 2022; Gavrielides, 2008; Wilcox & Hoyle, 2004). Whilst pockets of excellent work exist, there remains a significant gap in robust evidence about what actually works for young people (Gavrielides, 2011, 2025).
This evidence gap has real consequences. Many young people are left without the support they need to repair harm and rebuild their lives. This is particularly true for those aged 18 to 25, whose cognitive development is ongoing but who are often treated as adults without appropriate support structures after being involved in conflict or harms. Our week was dedicated to addressing this urgent challenge.
Professor Theo Gavrielides, RJ4All’s Director and Founder, spoke not just as a criminologist, but as a father:
"I see a young man full of emotions, questions, anger and frustration. Feelings of being lost, isolated, questions of identity and belonging. At the same time, I see him having the most amazing dreams to fix what we wise adults are passing on. I see resilience and empathy, kindness and the kind of humanity that we, in our wise years, have forgotten about."
At RJ4All, we practise what we preach. We have developed the RJiNEAR resilience-building model, enhancing young people’s adaptive and sustainable growth by supporting their emotional intelligence, self-awareness and positive, growth-oriented life changes. The model helps at-risk individuals develop values, skills and resources towards a life based on human flourishing. It also draws on community power and involvement to provide a holistic approach to preventing extremist ideologies and violent actions motivated by hate and extremism. This has been well tested over seven years across 12 European countries. We are also collaborating with the Youth Endowment Fund and Coram to design the first-of-its-kind Shared Practice Model for direct restorative justice across youth justice service teams in England and Wales
What Did We Learn This Week?
Forgiveness is a gift, not an expected result of restorative justice
Restorative justice facilitates understanding among parties through dialogue, bringing together those who have caused harm and those who have been impacted by it. Healing and transforming deep pain is possible through human connection and power-balanced dialogue. Forgiveness is a voluntary gift, not a requirement and waiting for it can hold us back. This message was powerfully reflected through the story of Professor Margot Van Sluytman in conversation with Professor Theo Gavrielides.
At sixteen, her father was murdered. Thirty years later, she chose to meet the man who killed her father, not to seek forgiveness or closure, but simply to understand.
Through her Sawbonna Project, Professor Van Sluytman reframes justice through shared humanity rather than condemnation. Sawbonna means “I see you” and emphasises our shared humanity: “we matter personally, professionally, politically.” She described restorative justice as relational, causing deep emotions and “restorative justice pain” that can be cathartic. This pain is justified because humans are inherently connected, and the process aims to repair broken social bonds.
Restorative Justice Empowers Young People
LaToya Fernandez, Restorative Justice Coordinator and Norwalk’s first DEI Officer, gave a motivational speech about how justice is fundamentally about connection, repair and moving forward together. Her message reflected RJ4All’s commitment to making sure every young person gets the support they need to grow and thrive.
Throughout the week, we ran wellbeing circles and restorative justice sports events, including a boxing class. These activities, informed by our RJiNEAR model, showed how restorative justice principles of fairness, diversity, power sharing, help young people express emotions, strengthen bonds and build resilience.
Throughout the week, we distributed 15 Warm Packs to users of our wellbeing services under the Clarion Wellbeing Spaces grant. Each pack included dehumidifiers, thermal water bottles and a selection of high-quality hygiene and beauty products to help local community members stay warm and well during winter.
Dr Asli E. Mert, Research and Policy Director and coordinator of the International Restorative Justice Week event at RJ4All, explained the motivation behind distributing the warm packs:
This is an act of care that brings hope to people during their most difficult moments. When we care, we strengthen social bonds. When we care, people remain open and connected. This reflects the ethos of restorative justice embedded in community relationships.
At a time when divisive narratives and extremist ideologies are igniting new wars and deepening inter-community tensions, during #RJWeek2025, we released the online webinar recorded from RJ4All’s 5th annual conference, held in October 2025. There, RJ4All, together with experts and restorative justice practitioners from Spain, Germany, Norway and Italy, redefined how restorative justice can prevent violent extremism and repair harm. We challenged the conventional counterterrorism and security-driven responses, and advocated for evidence-based, human-centred alternatives rooted in restorative justice, positive criminology and positive psychology. In the webinar, you will also find Professor Theo Gavrielides’ new monograph, which combines philosophical enquiry with original data from six international pilot projects conducted over seven years. The book offers practical tools, resources and critical analysis for educators, practitioners and policymakers working to build resilience against violence and harm.
Looking Forward
International Restorative Justice Week 2025 reinforced a clear message: by truly listening to young people, embracing our shared humanity and committing to evidence-based practice, we can build a fairer and more compassionate world.
In the annual blog for restorative justice week, Prof Theo Gavrielides has re-confirmed our vision that “Restorative justice is an ethos, not punishment. This ethos places our humanity at the centre of the solution and through this process helps us understand that to stop and prevent harm, we must see it in a holistic way. Restorative justice is more than just its practices.”
We invite you to stay involved in this important work. Whether by learning more, sharing these stories, or supporting our ongoing efforts, you can be part of a community dedicated to transforming harm into healing and proving what works for the next generation. Young people deserve more from restorative justice, and we need you to make it happen.
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References
Wilcox, A., & Hoyle, C. (2004). The National Evaluation of the Youth Justice Board’s Restorative Justice Projects T.
Banwell-Moore, R. (2022). The Delivery of Restorative Justice in Youth Offending Teams in England and Wales: Examining Disparities and Highlighting Best Practice. Laws, 11(4), 60.
Gavrielides, T. (2008). Addressing Race Hate through Restorative Justice: A youth-led case study: London – Bradford – Liverpool. IARS Publications.
Gavrielides, T. (2011). Restorative Justice and the Secure Estate: Alternatives for Young People in Custody. IARS Publications.
Gavrielides, T. (2025). Race hate and restorative justice: An evaluation of a small-scale youth intervention. Internet Journal of Restorative Justice, 13(2).
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Information for Editors
About Restorative Justice for All International Institute (RJ4All)
RJ4All is a charitable international institute with a mission to address power abuse, conflict, and poverty through the use of restorative justice values and practices. We do this through a combination of restorative justice projects delivered both internationally and locally at the RJ4All Rotherhithe Community Centre in London. We advance community cohesion, equality, human rights, and redistribute power by supporting civil society and delivering social justice and poverty relief projects, educational programmes and high-quality volunteering opportunities for marginalised groups.
For more information: https://rj4all.org/
