MEDIATION AND RESTORATIVE JUSTICE IN

HUNGARY

TÜNDE BARABÁS, PH.D – SZANDRA WINDT, PH.D

MEREPS MEETING

12 NOVEMBER 2009, LONDON

1. THE STEPS OF THE REGULATIONS

Council Framework Decision 2001/220/JHA, the Ministry of Justice clearly intends to implement penal mediation in legislation by 22 March 2006.

Act No. 2006/LI. (which modified the Criminal Procedure Act) – possibility of the mediaton inside the criminal procedure

Act No. 2006/ CXXXIII. About the mediation in criminal cases

2. LEGAL LIMITS OF MEDIATION IN THE PROCESS

The using of mediation is not avaliable in all criminal cases. In the Criminal Procedure Act are legal limits to the use of mediation. It can only be used:

in crimes against persons, traffic offences or property crimes punishable by imprisonment of up to five years; in other

words it cannot be used in the case of serious crimes. There is a list of conditions under which mediation is

inapplicable, amongst which the most emphasised is cases connected to organised crime or committed by a repeat offender or a habitual recidivist, in other words when the perpetrator has already committed many or at least one similar crime.

The last stage at which victim-offender conflict-resolution can be carried out is the court of first instance. Later, including during the execution of sentence, it cannot be applied.

3. MEDIATION IN PRISON SETTINGS

In the Hungarian criminal law it is not the aim of the penal system and the execution to foster reconciliation between parties and nor is it suitable for it to do so. This means, that unless parties have already reconciled before the closing of the first instance in the court, they will not have the opportunity to do so later. Because of this, however, a victim, who would like to take part in such a process is unfairly excluded from the opportunity of restoration and negotiation, and those imprisoned will not have the chance to face the harm or offence their crime has caused or to express their remorse in a way that is recognised by law .

4. ATTITUDES TOWARDS RJ IN HUNGARY

The current public atmosphere in Hungary does not appear to be favourable towards a mediation possibility between an victim and offender that would be embedded in the criminal proceedings and would offer an alternative to imprisonment. Mediation applied in prison settings, which would intend to mitigate the sentence, is expected to face similar public reception.

5. PUBLIC VOICES AND POLITICS TOWARDS RJ

The public voice appears to demand more severe

and longer punishments, life imprisonment and

the reintroduction of capital punishment.

Several politicians and public figures believe that

more serious and stringent punishments,

stringency, the and a lowering in the age of

criminal liability would be successful measures to

take in order to in decreasing crime rates and

these people regularly voice their views in public.

6. Surveyes in the topic of RJFirst in 1993 looked into the

possible use of mediation in connection with crimes and the attitudes of inmates and their victims. (Barabás) At the time, only 2% of those found guilty rejected the idea of compensation for the victim in exchange for the mitigation or avoidance of the punishment.

This result was confirmed by a repeat study in 2003.

ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE MEDIATION

Victims and opinions: A victim survey carried out by OKRI based on a sample of 10,000 people clearly showed that the idea of reconciliation, accepting restoration and using mediation is not far from the Hungarian people’s, traditions and mindset. (2004)

The In-Sec research also discovered that Hungarians do not tend to be more punitive than people in other European countries. Moreover, a large proportion of respondents believe that prevention is not necessarily achieved by a more severe punishment in the field of violent crimes. (Irk-Barabás - Kovács). The Victims and opinions” survey made it clear that, in accordance with international findings, those who have previously been victimised showed more understanding towards the idea of victim-offender agreement. (2003)

This result was confirmed by AGIS survey in 2004, which also highlighted the fact that a lack of information leads to an increase in insecurity.

Attitudes towards the acceptance of mediation amongst experts were studied by Kerezsi, and Fellegi amongst judges and prosecutors.

HUNGARIAN AIMS OF MEREPS I.

1. Studying the application of law in the

Continental and the Anglo-Saxon

criminal justice systems from the point

of view of whether mediation works or

not and if yes, under what legal and

topic-specific conditions is it used in the

criminal proceedings.

HUNGARIAN AIMS OF MEREPS II.

2. Developing

a special model of mediation that can be used in prison settings;

the legal conditions and criteria for restorative justice and its implementation;

the way it would be received by prisoners and prison staff that is supervising them;

HUNGARIAN AIMS OF MEREPS III.

3. Mapping:

what extent the victims and the mediators

employed by the Office of Justice would

accept the idea of the mediation in the prison

and which other NGOs could be involved in

the process in order to achieve more efficacy

and possibly greater acceptance.

MODEL PROJECT

OFFICIAL DATA 1.

2 451

2 977

0

500

1 000

1 500

2 000

2 500

3 000

Number of cases (2007) Number of cases (2008)

Number of cases (2007-2008)

OFFICIAL DATA 2.

1,8

3,6

1,41,6

3,0

2,5

0,7

1,0

2,1

2,5

1,8

1,5

1,2

2,3

2,9

1,0

1,4

1,7

3,2

1,2

1,7

0,6

5,7

1,11,3

3,8

2,4

1,6

1,3

0,90,7

1,11,2

1,0

3,4

0,6

0,2

1,5

1,1

3,5

0,7

1,7

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

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Közvetítői eljárás Felnőtt

Közvetítői eljárás FK

Summary Just 10 % juveniles subjective factor, the attitude of prosecutors

influence the use of mediation the question of the reparation, and the successful

finish of the process; to change of the police’s practice in connection

with the remit a case to mediation; to improve the cooperation among the

organisations and the difficulties in the juveniles’ cases.

the practice needs some small corrections, but the legal regulation of mediation does not need significant changes.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!