Professor Mark Umbreit, director of the School of Social Work’s Center for Restorative Justice & Peacemaking, has been invited to give the keynote address at an International Conference on Restorative Justice in Istanbul, Turkey in March 2012. The Turkish Parliament is working on legislation to implement victim offender mediation and civil court mediation throughout the country. Umbreit is helping to organize an international panel of experts to travel to Turkey, with colleagues from Brazil, Spain, Italy, Austria, Finland, Norway, Belgium, Scotland, and the U.S. He is also helping to organize a study tour for Turkish legislative leaders and policy makers to meet with national leaders in the mediation field in Washington, DC, New York, and Milwaukee.
Umbreit will also be providing extensive technical assistance, training, and research over the next 12 months as the Turkish Ministry of Justice attempts to more thoroughly implement and assess the practice of victim offender mediation and alternative dispute resolution policies and practices. Umbreit and the Center for Restorative Justice & Peacemaking have been involved in building increasing bridges of understanding and support between Islam and the global restorative justice movement. The work in Turkey, as a large democratic Muslim country, will significantly expand this initiative.