On November 21 Mayor Sullivan Issued an Official Proclamation for Restorative Justice Week. It was affirming nod to a more collaborative, community-building alternative to the current justice system. “RJ,” as one local organization defines it, “seeks to heal and put right the wrongs, focusing on the needs of those who have been harmed and those responsible for the harm. It encourages accountability, healing and closure for all.”

To mark the occasion, we wanted to share a brief excerpt that was sent our way earlier this year. It was written by a practicioner of Restorative Justice and details the important connection between public space, democratic well-being and peace-building work. The work tends to frame the discussion in an international context, but it’s points can also be read with a more local “lens.”

“Across different political contexts, free spaces are “public places in the community, between private lives and large-scale institutions,” where people come together.

In free spaces, people:

• Organize, share experiences, and raise issues that would otherwise be avoided.

• Engage with people who are different in some ways—constituency, generation, civil society role, and so on—but who share similar interests and may become “unlikely allies.” This works best when the space is open and diverse and includes ordinary people and elites.

• Learn to collaborate, listen attentively, give and take, compromise, negotiate, problem solve, and act in solidarity—rather than succumb to controversy and conflict.

• Sort through policy priorities and innovate ideas, strategies, action plans, policies, and programs that will advance a vision of “what should be.”

• Generate demands on the political and policy systems to challenge existing power relationships.

Free spaces can also be a safe space for decision makers and those affected by impending decisions to candidly discuss policy priorities, differences, and potential areas for agreement. In the United States, many “think tanks” make an effort to provide such space, but important parts of the community are often left out, particularly those that have been historically under-represented. In contrast, the Instiute for Development Policy and Analysis (IDPAA) at Proshika has been successful in bringing together different parts of the Bangladesh NGO community to discuss the national budget and poverty alleviation. This method has been used successfully with other issues in many parts of the world.

The use of free spaces helps build many key characteristics of a strong democracy, including:

• A culture of listening.

• A sense of community responsibility

• A culture of people’s legitimate participation in public argument and problem solving.

Free spaces are not limited to organizations, buildings, or formal settings, but can be thought of more broadly as places where people gather to discuss experiences, ideas, and pressing issues. For example:

• Rivers and streams in rural Asia, Africa, and Latin America where women wash clothes have long been places for organizing and creating demands.

• In the US South before the civil rights revolution, beauty shops, barbershops, and pool halls in African American communities were places for studying the US Constitution—a prerequisite for registering to vote.

• In the United States, church basements, public libraries, bookstores, and performance halls are commonly used for community meetings convened by religious, ethnic, civic, neighborhood, womens, worker, and immigrant groups.

[…]

Whatever form they take, free spaces, free speech, and freedom of assembly must be respected by the state’s apparatus—the police, the army, and government officials—and protected from harassment, by either officials or nongovernment vigilantes. In cases where they are not, abuses often become a rallying point for advocacy efforts. The fight for press freedom and to protect journalists in many countries offer two examples…

David Cohen et al “Lessons from Social Movement Advocacy” in Advocacy for Social Justice. Kumarian Press, 2001

Excerpted from Lesson 6: “Free Spaces Are Critical for Engaging in Public Argument and Building Public Judgment.” The complete chapter details the process of relationship-building that leads toward public judgment benefits from the creation and use of free spaces, so described by Sara Evans and Harry Boyte.

For more on this text see the following book review.

For more information on Restorative Justice, please check out the following organizational websites:

• Fraser Region Community Justice Initiatives Organization – www.cjibc.org
• Vancouver Association of Restorative Justice – www.vanrj.wordpress.com

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