ALTERNATIVE: Justice and Security in Intercultural Settings
The FP7 ALTERNATIVE project has the objective to develop alternative understandings of security and justice through restorative justice approaches in intercultural settings within democratic societies. It conducts its research in four action research sites, in Austria, Hungary, Serbia and Northern Ireland. Professor Ivo Aertsen, from the Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium, coordinator of the project explains: ‘We used the framing of conflicts in intercultural settings and not intercultural conflicts, because we wanted to avoid confirming an image that conflict or tension is inherent between cultures. Instead, we wanted to make clear that tensions, conflicts or difficult integration have different causes, depending on the setting. We do not want to criminalise the notion of interculturality. We do not want to further the securitisation of interculturality.’ The ALTERNATIVE project strives to look for positive alternatives to the tendency in Europe to criminalise and securitise interculturality. ‘To do this, it is important to start a conversation with the representatives of certain minority groups, cultures or social groups. As soon as the issue becomes securitised or criminalised, you effectively shut out a large group of people. You diminish the chances of having a conversation’, says professor Aertsen. ‘There has been a security discourse for the last ten to twenty years in Europe, where we translate social issues directly into a problem of security. This is where ALTERNATIVE goes against the current.’ Besides security, justice is another very important aspect to the project: ‘Justice processes have always been important in a constitutional democracy’, dixit professor Aertsen. ‘It is important that this also comes to the foreground in informal mechanisms, where the need for justice must be recognised. We see in the action research, especially in Northern Ireland and Serbia, that some conflicts are not to be fixed only through courts and legal action, not even when that court is in The Hague. Restorative approaches are necessary to ensure a sense of justice in people. Those approaches can range from mediation, to group conversations, to workshops and more. It is imperative to build up trust with the stakeholders.’ Restorative approaches are a different solution to the issue, but one that takes time, according to the professor. ‘People often overestimate the possibility that things can be fixed with just a few simple but stern measures. New legislation or more police in the street is supposed to be a quick fix. But that is simply focusing on one side of the issue. Security needs to be internalised. That is where restorative justice providers come in. They are a neutral third party. Their services exist today, often in traditional criminal justice cases. The ALTERNATIVE project tries to adapt restorative approaches to conflicts in intercultural settings. We should be railing against the culture of fear that we have created over the past few years. To wrap up this four-year project, the KU Leuven is organising a conference together with the European Forum for Restorative Justice, another partner in the project. ‘The goal of the conference is to present the results of four years’ worth of research, so we can reflect upon it and receive feedback. It is a moment of dialogue. We also want to reach target groups that are slightly more difficult to reach, such as the private security sector and the public administration. It would be beneficial to work together on a long term.’
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Paesi
Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Norway, Serbia, United Kingdom