Helen Bowen was invited by the University of Auckland Centre for Continuing Education to train 47 Thai judges in the philosophy and practice of restorative justice (RJ) in New Zealand on 24 and 31 August 2011.
The visiting judicial officers were particularly interested in New Zealand’s experience with RJ in the Youth Court. This is because the Department of Juvenile Observation and Protection in Thailand (Juvenile and Family Province Courts) has been experimenting with family group conferencing, based on a modified New Zealand model, for the past eight years.
Such Thai conferences are called Family and Community Group Conferences (FCGC) to recognise the importance of the local community in Thai society.
The success of the experiment has resulted in the passage of a new law which provides for FCGCs for all juvenile offenders in Thailand who meet the criteria set by the legislation.
The four hour session on 24 August, with criminal lawyer and co-trustee Jim Boyack assisting Helen, resulted in lively debate. The debate largely focused on whether or not Family Group Conferences (FGCs) which did not have victims attending could be described as truly “restorative”.
The new law in Thailand requires that a victim agree to meet with the young offender, or no FCGC will take place.
This contrasts with the New Zealand FGC always taking place, even in the absence of a victim, the focus then being on the restoration of the young person back into his/her family group and the wider community, after being held to account for the offending and engaging in rehabilitative programmes.
Helen and Jim were challenged by the questions posed, and acknowledged, as now in Thailand, no conferences in New Zealand take place in the adult jurisdiction unless victims attend the proposed conference.
Helen and Jim explained that in the juvenile jurisdiction, young persons are required to attend FGCs, with or without victims attending, whereas in the adult jurisdiction both victims and offenders volunteer to attend conferences.
Helen and Jim are both Youth Advocates (lawyers for young persons aged 14-17) and they have been training facilitators in the adult jurisdiction for the past ten years.
Helen is now corresponding with Apiradee Phoprom, a Thai Court of Appeal judge, one of the trainee judges, who herself in the past month has been visiting provincial centres around Thailand to assist local courts with the implementation of the new law.