Diana Unwin Chair in Restorative Justice

Community and resources

Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington Restorative Justice works across the tertiary, public and community sectors.

This page tells you about who is working in the restorative justice space in New Zealand and internationally, we also have links to some free information sources.

Restorative university implementation

The Diana Unwin Chair in Restorative Justice at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington offers training and consultation services, developed in partnership with Aspen Restorative Consulting. Rooted in an academic understanding of restorative practices and inspired by our practical community experience, we offer the opportunity to transform how your community builds, maintains, and repairs relationships. For more information, see Aspen Restorative Consulting's website or contact us.

Community providers/practitioners in New Zealand

  • Restorative Justice Aotearoa (RJA) is the professional association representing New Zealand providers of restorative justice and restorative practices, and the professional accreditation body for New Zealand providers of restorative justice. RJA’s mission is to foster and support high quality restorative practice and services that will enhance the lives of individuals and communities. The organisation has a range of services within the Justice sector, as well as extending its field of operations more comprehensively into other sectors such as education, environment and health. To find out about providers in your region, visit Restorative Justice Aotearoa’s Provider Info page.
  • Restorative Practices Whanganui was established to promote and encourage the Whanganui community to take up the concept of restorative practice. Restorative Practices is a whole community philosophy, in action, that places respectful relationships at the heart of justice, education and community services.
  • Project RESTORE operates across community agencies, with services and practice models resulting from extensive collaboration between victim-survivor advocates, established community organisations, and other agencies working with victim-survivors and offenders.
  • Restorative Schools has been operating since 2007 supporting restorative practitioners working in schools and across the community.

Government departments and restorative justice

  • Ministry of Justice—the information here explains the basics of restorative justice in the legal system.
  • Ministry of Education—this website provides details about restorative practices in schools and a presentation from Chris about restorative practices in schools.
  • New Zealand Police—this website talks about restorative justice as part of the adult diversion scheme.
  • Ministry of Social Development—on this page you will find information about family group conferences.

Restorative justice resources

In our Wellington office we have quite a collection of books, journal articles and historic documents on restorative justice in New Zealand and internationally. If you are researching Restorative Justice in New Zealand and want access to our library please contact us or come and visit. Below is a list of online resources on restorative justice:

  • The Restorative Community of Aotearoa is a place to learn, share and connect with those living and working in restorative practices in New Zealand.
  • Restorative Justice Online (RJ Online) is a free service to anyone interested in the topic; run by Prison Fellowship International, this is an excellent website for different types of information and resources.
  • Restorative Justice for All (rj4all) is the largest free e-Library on restorative justice with articles, training material, books, legislation and policy documents from around the world.
  • Internet Journal of Restorative Justice (IJRJ) is an international, peer-reviewed e-journal in the field of restorative justice.
  • Restorative Now is a provider-led website with case studies, restorative practice examples, new ideas in the field, and a blog.
  • Restorative Practices International is a not-for-profit, independent, professional member association that supports the development of restorative practice in schools, prisons, workplaces, organisations, families and communities.
  • The International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP) is the world’s first graduate school devoted entirely to the teaching, research and dissemination of restorative practices.
  • Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice promotes dialogue and networking within the restorative justice field and provides education and training through web-based and onsite programs, you can also access Howard Zehr's blog on restorative justice through this site.
  • Talking Trouble NZ is collaboration between speech-language therapists who want to improve New Zealand’s response to the communication difficulties experienced by many youth involved with the legal system.
  • Wellington Community Justice Project is a student-led society at Victoria University of Wellington that aims to improve access to justice and legal services in the community, and to provide law students with an opportunity to gain practical legal experience.
  • Rethinking Crime and Punishment is a strategic initiative to raise the level of public debate about the use of prison and alternative forms of punishment in New Zealand.
  • JustSpeak is a non-partisan network of young people speaking to, and speaking up for, a new generation of thinkers who want change in New Zealand's criminal justice system.
  • Anglican Action is committed to social justice, working to make a difference in the lives of the underprovided and disconnected.
  • National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies was established at the University of Otago in 2009 and is a centre that examines conflict and peace.
  • Judge McElrea Papers Collection resource available through Napier Libraries.
  • This American Life This episode of ‘This American Life’ from Chicago Public Radio has a segment on how restorative justice is operating in a high school. This American Life tends to take a topic and then explore it from a number of angles. The topic of this episode is behaviour in schools. The first ‘act’ of this episode looks at race and behaviour management in schools in the States. Then there’s an ‘act’ about high schools that run very strict behaviour control policies. The third ‘act’ is about restorative justice in a school (from 36;17). Depressing example of how the police in the US deal with young people. Hopefully that wouldn't happen here (or in Australia).