Chile · 27 February, 2018

Visit by a delegation from Chile to Belgium and Spain to learn about public juvenile justice systems that incluide restorative practices

The EUROsociAL+ Programme is providing support to the institutions of the Chilean justice system in their effort to modernise their juvenile justice system by incorporating restorative criminal mediation

With this action, it is hoped to contribute to modernising the Chilean juvenile justice system by improving access to justice for adolescents and young people by providing them with more and better alternatives for access to justice that meet the international human rights commitments adopted by Chile. This process will include adding restorative practices to the reform of the public institutions responsible for the social rehabilitation of adolescents and promoting innovative solutions that do not necessarily involve having recourse to legal proceedings and avoid contact between adolescents and young people and the traditional justice system and its criminogenic effects.

As part of this work, EUROsociAL organized a visit by a delegation of Chilean officials to learn about the restorative justice models developed in Belgium and Spain. The Chilean officials taking part in the activity came from the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Public Criminal Defender’s Office and the Judiciary.

The visit to Belgium had the cooperation of the University of Louvain Institute of Criminology. During the visit, the Chilean officials were able to learn about the experiments in restorative justice being carried out by the Belgian Ministry of Welfare, Public Health and Family and the Louvain Mediation Service (Bemiddelingsdienst). They also visited the Hassfelt Tax Office and the Liege Court of First Instance to learn about implementing restorative justice in the criminal justice system and mechanisms for cooperating and coordinating with the mediation services.

The visit to Spain had the cooperation of the Community of Madrid’s Agency for the Re-Education and Rehabilitation of Juvenile Offenders (ARRMI). During the visit, they toured the LAVADERO Judicial Measures Enforcement Centre, held meetings with units of the National Police and Civil Guard that specialise in protecting juvenile offenders, teams from the Madrid Juvenile Courts and the State Public Prosecutor’s Office’s Juvenile Prosecution Service.

The activity had the technical assistance and support of the international expert Helena Soleto Muñoz, Titular Professor of Procedural Law at the Universidad Carlos III in Madrid, Spain.

Área de políticas de gobernanza democrática. Democratic governance area / EUROsociAL+

Country: Chile
SDG: Peace, justice and strong institutions, Partnerships for the goals
Policy area: Democratic governance policies