<p>History is regrettably replete with wars and dictatorial regimes that claimed the lives of millions of people. Most of the time the planners were not held accountable for their misdeeds. Fortunately in recent years the idea of people being prosecuted for mass atrocities was launched and debated. The purpose of this study was to propose avenues for promoting respect for victims rights. It examined the rationale of the victims reparation, its evolution, its denial and its rebirth. It canvass victims rights in domestic law especially in the civil law in comparison with international law. It proposed means whereby the international community may better address the issue of victims rights.</p>

This is an original non-experimental research conducted in four Geo-Political Zones in Nigeria (West Africa). It surveys opinions of victims of crime and conflicts, and criminal justice professionals with regard to exploring restorative justice as an Alternative Dispute Resolution Model in the country. The findings of this study are relatively in line with other cross-national research and evaluations of restorative justice, which consistently demonstrate that victims of crime are better off after participating in restorative justice programmes compared to the court proceedings (see Strang et al, 2006 for instance). The ‘Afrocentric’ viewpoints contained in the findings are imperative to international practitioners and scholars interested in Peace and Dispute Resolutions in Africa.

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<p>This research project involves a comparative, cross-national study of truth and reconciliation commissions (TRCs) in countries around the world that have used these extra-judicial institutions to pursue justice and promote national reconciliation during periods of democratic transition or following a civil conflict marked by intense violence and severe human rights abuses. An important objective of truth and reconciliation commissions involves instituting measures to address serious human rights abuses that have occurred as a result of discrimination, ethnocentrism and racism. In recent years, rather than solely utilizing traditional methods of conflict resolution and criminal prosecution, transitional governments have established truth and reconciliation commissions as part of efforts to foster psychological, social and political healing. </p><p>The primary objective of this research project is to determine why there has been a proliferation of truth and reconciliation commissions around the world in recent decades, and assess whether the perceived effectiveness of these commissions is real and substantial. In this work, using a multi-method approach that involves quantitative and qualitative analysis, I consider the institutional design and structural composition of truth and reconciliation commissions, as well as the roles that these commissions play in the democratic transformation of nations with a history of civil conflict and human rights violations. </p><p>In addition to a focus on institutional design of truth and reconciliation commissions, I use a group identity framework that is grounded in social identity theory to examine the historical background and sociopolitical context in which truth commissions have been adopted in countries around the world. This group identity framework serves as an invaluable lens through which questions related to truth and reconciliation commissions and other transitional justice mechanisms can be explored. I also present a unique theoretical framework, the reconciliatory democratization paradigm, that is especially useful for examining the complex interactions between the various political elements that directly affect the processes of democratic consolidation and reconciliation in countries in which truth and reconciliation commissions have been established. Finally, I tackle the question of whether successor regimes that institute truth and reconciliation commissions can effectively address the human rights violations that occurred in the past, and prevent the recurrence of these abuses.</p> / Dissertation

The current retributive approach to tackling hate crime, while intuitively grounded in the principle of proportionately, does little to either repair the harms caused by incidents of hate or engender greater levels of acceptance of those deemed as “different”. This thesis therefore explores whether restorative justice, a relatively new theory and practice of criminal justice, is better placed to tackle the causes and consequences of hate victimisation. The 18 month empirical study, carried out to examine the thesis’ aims, uses a triangulation approach by incorporating observations of restorative justice meetings, semi-structured interviews with victim participants and semi-structured interviews with restorative practitioners who have experience facilitating hate crime cases. The mainly qualitative data collated provides for a detailed evaluation of the various processes found within restorative practices that: 1) helped to alleviate the distress caused by hate victimisation and 2) prevented the recurrence of hate-motivated incidents. A broad conceptualisation of hate crime was used within the thesis that included “hate incidents”. This allowed me to explore the utility of restorative practices in cases involving serious violence and the more pervasive “low-level”, but nonetheless highly deleterious, non-criminal incidents of hate that are frequently committed against minority group individuals. There were also several unanticipated findings from the study. First, data emerged which highlighted various aspects of the restorative practice which were unforeseen as being central to the successful application of restorative processes, these are discussed throughout the thesis. Second, great insight was gained into the nature of hate victimisation, helping to unravel some of the complex socio-cultural factors pivotal to both the cause and effect of hate victimisation. It is hoped that these additional findings provide important epistemological advancements in both fields of study.

The topic of this thesis is conditional discontinuance of criminal prosecution. This institute is one of the alternative ways of handling the criminal case, which are collectively called diversions. Their theoretical basis is a concept called restorative justice. Conditional discontinuance of criminal prosecution is an institute of criminal procedure that is a significant manifestation of the subsidiarity of criminal repression. This institute represents the provision of certain privileges to the accused that lie in the fact that the criminal proceedings are not brought to its standard end in exchange for reimbursing the relationship with the victim, disturbed by the criminal offence. The thesis is divided into six chapters, which seek to render the chosen theme as well as its broader context. At thebeginning, attention is paid to the concept of restorative justice and the concept of diversions. The main part of this thesis is in the third chapter and is entirely exclusively devoted to conditional discontinuance of criminal prosecution. Author's goal is to cover all aspects of this concept and its application. The following chapter is devoted to other types of diversions. Given the limited scope for this thesis,this attention is however only marginal.. Within the penultimate chapter, the thorough...

Alternatives to unconditional imprisonment Petr Horák The following thesis is concerned with alternatives to unconditional imprisonment. I have chosen this theme because I think it is very topical and frequently discussed issue not only among experts bud within the general public, too. These specific institutes of the criminal law enable quick, economical and effective solution of particular criminal cases with no need of using unconditional imprisonment. The main goal of this paper is to provide its reader with a summarizing overview about the existing alternatives in the present Czech criminal law , about their advantages and disadvantages, about the reasons which led to their implementation to our legal system and about another important related aspects. The introductory chapter of this text deals with the general issues of the purpose of sentencing and sanctions. It provides the basic information about the main principles of sentencing and the theories of sentencing which laid the foundation of contemporary system of criminal justice. The following chapter describes the beginnings of the development of alternative sentencing in Bohemia region. The restorative justice and its principals brought new ideas to criminal law during the second half of the 20th century. According to this original doctrine the...

This master`s thesis deals with the topic of agreement on guilt and punishment, which was introduced into Czech criminal procedure code in 2012. The agreement on guilt and punishment represents an alternative way of solving criminal cases. The agreement is entered into by the prosecutor and the accused, while taking into account the interests of the injured party. A precondition of the conclusion of an agreement on guilt and punishment is the declaration of the accused that they committed the act for which they are prosecuted. The prosecutor proposes the adequate punishment for the act committed and the final version of the agreement has to be approved by the court. For the accused, this procedure means a mitigation of the sentence in exchange for a declaration of committing an act. An advantage for the law enforcement authorities is shorter and simplified criminal procedure. Other benefits of the conclusion of the agreement on guilt and punishment are the cost savings and the protection of injured parties. The institute of agreement on guilt and punishment has its origin in the Anglo-American legal system where it is one of the pillars of the criminal process. In the Czech context, however, it is a foreign and controversial institute, which is subject to strong criticism mainly by legal theorists....

This thesis seeks to reorient the ideological foundations of restorative justice through feminist epistemologies to explore possibilities of how the movement might more fully actualize its values. The Three Pillars of Restorative Justice, conceptualized by Howard Zehr, offer an alternative process to the punitive recourse of the criminal justice system and serve as the foundation of mainstream restorative practices. However, the praxis and analytical discourse have stalled due to the limited binary of criminal and restorative justice frameworks. My thesis uses methodologies prominent in Black and Native feminisms-- such as critical thinking, contextual intelligence, and imagining futurity-- to complicate assumptions embedded in the criminal/restorative justice relationship. I establish the framework of restorative justice and briefly summarize the essential paradoxes to make clear the parallels and limits of the relationship. I then use feminist methodologies to reinterpret the pillars' values and introduce how some activists have begun to reimagine justice.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences. / Department of Sociology