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| Kathmandu, Tuesday August 19, 2003 Bhadra 02, 2060. |
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Restorative
justice
T he story of a
15-year-old boy Gokul Acharya from Jhapa that he had to discontinue his education after
the heinous murder of his father has brought serious snags to the fore in our criminal
justice system. Under the criminal justice system, crime is done against the state and
real victim becomes irrelevant. In Acharya’s case, too, the murderer of his father
was apprehended, his property confiscated, and sent to jail. The confiscated property went
to the state coffers. No compensation was given to the victim’s family. Acharya was
left wandering as he lost his father, the sole bread earner of the family. He had to give
up his education immediately and start looking for a job to keep the family afloat.
Since the criminal
justice system does not take into account the concerns and needs of the victim, there are
growing movements worldwide to look for reform, if not the alternatives to the criminal
justice system. One promising outcome is the fast-evolving concept of restorative justice.
The criminal justice system often deals with three questions: What law has been broken?
Who broke the law? And, what punishment should be meted out to the criminal? In all these
questions, the needs and concerns of the victim are totally absent, as if the crime has
not been committed against him or her. The restorative justice system, on the other hand,
seeks to find out the answer to the three questions that are critical to the victim: Who
has been hurt? What is the victim’s need? How to restore justice, and what is the
appropriate process to involve stakeholders in an effort to correct things?
If justice should be
done from the perspective of a victim, the principle of restorative justice is far more
suitable than the criminal justice system. Moreover, the restorative justice system is not
viticim-biased, as it appears to be. It, instead, considers the concerns of both victims
and offenders. It tries to bring both sides to a single negotiating space and helps
offenders understand how their actions have affected others and take responsibility for
their actions.
The restorative justice
system is, however, not new to our society. In fact, until recently, we had a
well-functioning community level justice system that solved local problems locally. The
Pancha Valadmis--after extensive deliberations and with the involvement of victims as well
as offenders--used to provide justice on the spot. However, this system has, by and large,
collapsed, thanks to over-politicisation of basic community units in the post-1990 period.
Reengineering the restorative justice system having a greater scope and legitimacy would
not only improve the quality of justice, but it would also lessen the burden of our
overloaded judiciary. |
