Advocating for Restorative Justice in Nigeria
Participants in a recent one-day seminar organized by PF Nigeria discussed the chronic prison overcrowding in that country and explored solutions through alternatives to incarceration based on restorative justice.
The seminar, titled "Crime, Punishment and the Victim Remedy", was presided over by the chairman of the Law Reform Commission and featured presentations from two experts. Dan Van Ness, of the Centre for Justice and Reconciliation at PFI provided an overview of restorative justice in his paper "The Jurisprudence of Restorative Justice." Iyabo Obunniran, a law school professor in Lagos, gave a presentation titled "Sentencing Options and Victim Remedy - A Legal Framework," which focused on the potential of community service and restitution.
Representatives from Chief Justice of the Nigerian Supreme Court, the
Attorney General, the Ministry of Interior, the prison service, the
Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, and the
Nigeria Law Reform Commission participated. The seminar concluded with
a declaration calling for a commitment to relieving the prison
overcrowding crisis through executive, legislative and judicial
initiatives.
December 2007
