“Children are born with democratic genes. They should know how to solve conflicts in a democratic way”, said Dennis de Vries, Director of Stichting Vreedzaam (the Peaceful Foundation) in Utrecht, at the Virtual Study Visit organised within the i-Restore project on 7–8 September, 2021.
During the i-Restore Virtual Study Visit, members of the project’s Child Advisory Boards (CABs) from Greece, Albania, and Romania had online meetings with restorative justice (RJ) practitioners from Belgium, Spain, and the Netherlands, and participated in different workshops organised by the European Forum for Restorative Justice (EFRJ) Belgium and Restorative Justice Nederland (RJN). The goal of the event was to further develop participants’ understanding of children’s rights and make them stronger child advocates. The 2 half-day study visits were organised on Zoom Meetings (via the ChildHub platform), for around 20 children from the CABs in Romania, Greece, and Albania, with simultaneous interpretation from English to Albanian and Romanian.
On the first day, the European Forum for Restorative Justice, its projects, tasks and collaborators were introduced to children.
On the same day, Dennis de Vries (NL), Director of Stichting Vreedzaam (the Peaceful Foundation) in Utrecht, presented Peaceable School principles to the children. Peaceable School is meant to teach children how to practice democracy (making decisions in a democratic way, by vote) exercise social skills, reach a consensus, resolve conflicts, assume social responsibility, express their opinion in a constructive way, and how to live in a community.
During the Virtual Study Visit, participants learned how to mediate conflict through videos and cartoons. They also learned how to identify the cause of a conflict, how to react in a conflict, and how to resolve a conflict. In a case study workshop, participants presented examples of conflicts and worked together to analyse conflict causes, reactions, and solutions.
The facilitator made a point of how different people react differently to conflict: some prefer to avoid conflict, while others fight to protect their own interests. Regardless, conflict can be a positive thing, because it provides an opportunity to learn from each other.
In Peaceable Schools, students are responsible for solving their own problems. They become aware of their role in conflicts. Peaceable School also offers training for children to become mediators; they gain knowledge and practice in conflict resolution, so that if conflicts arise in school, they can mediate between the offender and the harmed party.
Overall, the Peaceable School gives students a voice and educates them to play a role in society. Thus, it is a place to practice democracy. Children learn how to listen to each other, care for each other, reach a compromise, contribute to the community and solve conflicts by themselves.
The i-Restore project is aimed at promoting Restorative Justice in cases involving child victims, and empowering children to advocate for better protection of child victims.
The project is led by Terre des hommes Regional Office in Hungary and implemented in partnership with the European Forum for Restorative Justice, Restorative Justice Netherlands, Terre des hommes Romania and Terre des hommes Greece.
The i-RESTORE project is co-financed by the Justice (2014–2020) Programme of the European Union.