The Restorative Lab works with communities, Human Rights Commissions and governments across the world to address harms and injustices. We support a restorative way forward which focuses on creating just relations and transforming systems.
A Restorative Approach to Human Rights
Work with Human Rights Commissions across the country and internationally has revealed the difference a restorative approach can make to address issues of discrimination and harassment and to protect people from future harm.
Examples include:
- The early innovation at the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission in the case of Black Firefighters who experienced systemic racism in the Halifax Fire Service. This led to the development of a restorative approach at the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission more broadly.
- A review of the Human Rights Commission for the Northwest Territories recommending the implementation of a restorative approach which was accepted by the Territorial Government and support to other Commissions through the Canadian Association for Statutory Human Rights Agencies.
- The Lab’s Director, Jennifer Llewellyn is leading research in this area through an Insight Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) on a Restorative Approach to Human Rights Theory and Practice. This grant, along with others, have allowed us to contribute to important scholarship on how a restorative approach can advance the promotion and protection of rights.
Peacebuilding & Reconciliation
The Lab’s work in the area of peacebuilding and reconciliation pays particular attention to a restorative approach to truth and reconciliation processes in transitional contexts and to deal with past injustices and transform social relations .
Visit the Racial Justice section to learn more about the Lab’s current efforts across North America to respond to systemic racism in policing and justice systems, in systems of care, in cases of institutional abuse and in our communities more broadly.
Resource Highlight:
Book: Restorative Justice, Reconciliation, and Peacebuilding
Jennifer J. Llewellyn and Daniel Philpott
Restorative Justice, Reconciliation, and Peacebuilding – Oxford Scholarship (universitypressscholarship.com)
Restorative Public Inquiries
Responding with a holistic, relational analysis to urgent matters of public interest is critical to developing new pathways forward and learning from our past. The Restorative Lab is a leader with expertise in the design of restorative public inquiries and large-scale restorative processes to tackle systemic social issues. Including; truth and reconciliation processes in to respond to transitional justice and peacebuilding needs, and responses to institutional abuse and systemic failures of care. Applied for example in the Restorative Inquiry to the Home for Colored Children, Ontario’s Motherisk and Long-Term Care Commissions.
