Indigenous leaders, others to be trained in restorative justice

Mar 14, 2021 News

Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, S.C., at opening ceremony of the restorative justice training programme.

Kaieteur News – Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, S.C., has announced that indigenous leaders, teachers, religious leaders, judicial officers and probation officers are amongst those that will benefit from a continuous training in restorative justice to reduce the need for imprisonment for persons liable of criminal offences.
In his remarks at the opening ceremony of the training of facilitators in restorative justice, last week, Nandlall noted the programme is designed to help close the gaps of the criminal justice system.
He explained that, “It has been found that the traditional theories and methods of dealing with criminal behaviour and violent conduct have not yielded the results anticipated. In fact, there has been an increase or an upswing in these criminal atrocities…”

As such, the Attorney General said the programme is one of the new innovations that the experts have come up with to deal with criminal behaviour, violent conduct, and deviant conduct.
The Attorney General explained that restorative justice seeks to assess the cause of homicides and address social issues such as poverty, prevalence of domestic and other forms of violence in families and try to prevent other incidents.
“[The programme] bring victims and offenders together to melt that ice of hate and non-communication and together reflect on what caused the violence.”
The AG announced that the programme will engage several stakeholders, including the Ministry of Education, the Ministries of Human Services and Amerindian Affairs.
He noted that “the Ministry of Human Services has been asked to make available all of its probation officers for training in restorative justice. The Ministry of Education has been encouraged to have all teachers trained, so that young people could be targeted, so that the next generation would be able to settle disputes in the formative years of children.”
“We believe that if we are able to plant that seed there, when those children grow up, it will have a positive impact in keeping them away from the prisons; that is the ultimate objective of this programme,” he said
AG Nandlall also charged the Toshaos present at the workshop to return to their communities and practice the techniques learned.
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has been supportive of the Restorative Justice Programmes since 2018. The main objective of the restorative justice project is to reduce the prison population in Guyana.

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