EUROsociAL supports the Chilean Ministry of Justice and Human Rights in creating a national juvenile social reintegration service and reforming the law on adolescent criminal responsibility
An International Seminar on Restorative Justice in Criminal Matters and a Training Workshop on Restorative Justice were held in Santiago, Chile. These events were organised within the framework of the European Union Programme for Social Cohesion in Latin America, EUROsociAL+.
The International Seminar was opened by Juan José Ossa Santa Cruz, Undersecretary of Justice at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, Stella Zervoudaki, Ambassador for the European Union in Chile and Rafael Blanco, Dean of the Faculty of Law at Alberto Hurtado University.
International experts on Restorative Penal Justice from European universities attended and participated in both the seminar and the workshop, these included Helena Soleto from Carlos III University in Spain, Ivo Aertsen from the University of Leuven in Belgium and Tim Chapman from Ulster University in Northern Ireland. Several Chilean universities also participated in the seminar: Alberto Hurtado University, Diego Portales University, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile as well as the Citizen Peace Foundation and Unicef Chile.
The events also involved various public institutions from Chile (Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, Public Prosecutor’s Office, Public Defender’s Office, Judicial Branch, National Service for Minors – SENAME, among others) and representatives from public institutions from other Latin American countries who are working with the EUROsociAL+ Programme in the area of Restorative Criminal Justice: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay and Panama.
Both activities were part of the process being undertaken by the Chilean Ministry of Justice and Human Rights to modernise the juvenile justice system by creating a National Juvenile Social Reinsertion Service and reforming Law No. 20.084 on adolescent criminal responsibility.
Within this framework, and with the aim of promoting dialogue and exchanging experiences, the Democratic Governance Area of the European Union’s EUROsociAL+ Programme, in coordination with the Chilean Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, convened this International Seminar and Workshop on Restorative Justice and the state of development of the issue at the European level and in Latin America.
Área de políticas de gobernanza democrática. Democratic governance area / EUROsociAL+
