Gavrielides, T. (2027), Inter-community & inter-state conflicts: Restorative Justice Peacebuilding, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.

Book objectives

This volume arrives at a time when the world is filled with new and ongoing inter-community and intra-state conflicts. The effects of colonisation and the live conflicts in Cyprus, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Gaza, India and Pakistan as well as the wars in Ukraine and Syria serve as some examples of world realities that claim the lives of thousands of victims, including children and women. In addition to the daily casualties, these conflicts generate long-lasting pain and inter-generational trauma while causing irreversible environmental damages.  A zeitgeist is being formed where new narratives re-define how we co-exist and accept the other. These narratives are not pleasant. They are mostly divisive, breeding hate and encouraging adversarial feelings and a false sense of belonging.

Peace studies as well as international criminal law and humanitarian interventions have traditionally viewed colonisation, inter-state and inter-community conflicts through punitive lenses and top-down methods of resolution and diplomacy. This Volume brings together experts from around the world to offer a new vision of peace building. This is based in the practices and values of restorative justice including power-sharing and involvement in decision making.  This innovative approach is combined with the unique methodology that was adopted for generating the Volume’s chapters. This followed the method of the Greek Symposium whereby the authors met over 10 days in Cyprus  (summer 2025) to debate their papers while creating deep relationships through the love for thinking and the beauty of the mind.

 

Book structure & audience

This book is an edited collection of original research papers written by some of the world community leaders, practitioners and academics. It is edited by restorative justice leader. Prof. Theo Gavrielides, PhD, and published by Springer Palgrave (Palgrave Macmillan), a major academic publisher focused on humanities, social sciences, and business.
 
The volume falls within the disciplines of law (restorative justice, criminal law, criminology, human rights), social sciences peace and conflict studies), Psychology (Positive Psychology, trauma studies).
 
This book speaks to researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and human rights campaigners from around the world looking for a new approach that can better serve harmed parties, their families, and communities. For educators, it can inform Restorative justice modules, post-graduate courses in law, criminology, psychology and peace studies. 
 
As an additional contribution, this book introduces a new research methodology based on restorative justice. This was carried out in the form of a Greek symposium adopting the values of power sharing between the authors as well as equality, dignity, respect and love for the environment.
 

More than a book

This book provides proof of the power of restorative justice relationships. The need for its content and the foundations for its development were the result of almost 2 weeks of debates that took the form of an ancient Greek Symposium. The authors came together in the divided island of Cyprus as part of RJ4All’s International Restorative Justice Symposia

 
 

Table of contents

Foreword: Prof. John Braithwaite (Australian National University)

Introduction: Prof. Theo Gavrielides (RJ4All International Institute)

Chapter 1 – The book’s Restorative Justice Symposia methodology (Prof Theo Gavrielides, RJ4All Founder and Director UK & Cyprus).

Part I: Repairing post-conflict trauma & grief through restorative justice

Part I starts with four unique contributions focused on repairing immediate but also inter-generational trauma and grief caused by war and inter-community or inter-state conflict. These five chapters provide new empirical data on how restorative justice can be used to repair trauma and heal grief, while pointing out what can go wrong in this process. This part is written by scholars in the field focused on the normative aspects of this volume’s contribution. 

Chapter 2 – Post-war and inter-community intergenerational trauma: A Restorative justice approach, Prof Theo Gavrielides, (RJ4All Founder and Director UK & Cyprus) and Eleonore Chaustier (Research Assistant RJ4All UK and Cyprus)

Chapter 3 – Narrating Growth After Inherited Trauma: Disenfranchised Grief, Identity and Restorative Justice in Divided Communities, Dr. Lilia Psalta, (Assistant Professor in Psychology/Neuroscience and Course Leader of the MSc in Forensic Psychology at UCLan Cyprus) and Mrs Iro Michael (Head of the Help Centre at the Association for the Prevention and Handling of Violence in the Family, and Project Consultant at RJ4All Europe)

Chapter 4 – Transitional Loss and Restorative Justice in Post-Conflict Settings: A Grief-Sensitive Response to Sexual and Gender-Based Violence, Mrs Iro Michael (Head of the Help Centre at the Association for the Prevention and Handling of Violence in the Family, and Project Consultant at RJ4All Europe) and Dr. Lilia Psalta, (Assistant Professor in Psychology/Neuroscience and Course Leader of the MSc in Forensic Psychology at UCLan Cyprus)

Chapter 5 – Repairing trauma through Compassionate Listening Practices: Promote Peace and Conflict Management through restorative justice, Ms. Penelope Griffith, (Executive Director of Collaborative Solutions for Communities, United States) and Dr. Lorenn Walker, (Director of Hawai’i Friends of Restorative Justice, United States).

Part II: Case studies of restorative justice peace building

This section presents a series of case studies to articulate in practical terms the contribution of the volume and in particular how restorative justice has been used for peace building post conflict. The case studies stretch from inter-community conflicts to the consequences of colonialism, war and state power abuse including their impact on the environment.

Chapter 6 – Case study no 1: Restorative Justice Through a Decolonial Lens: Honouring Indigenous Worldviews, Dr. Adreanne Ormond, (Senior Lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand)

Chapter 7 – Case study no 2: Taking a restorative lens to ‘environmental harm’ post war and conflict – a transformative pathway toward healing the fractured relationships between humans and nature. Deborah Hollingworth (Head of the Office of Environmental & Restorative Justice, Australia)

Chapter 8 – Case study no 3: Restorative Justice: Reimagining Justice for Trafficked Persons in Terrorism, Dr. Felicity Gerry (KC at Libertas Chambers, United Kingdom/Australia)

Chapter 9 – Case study no 4: So what do we do on a Monday morning? Embedding Restorative Practice and Culture Change for community conflict prevention, Mrs. Julia Houlston Clark (CEO of Wales Restorative Approaches Partnership, United Kingdom)

Chapter 10 – Case study no 5: New Zealand’s colonisation and Conflict Resolution through restorative justice, Dr. Anne Hayden, (Research Associate at the Office Pro Vice-Chancellor, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand).

Chapter 11 – Case study no 6: Participatory democracy and community-based conflict resolution: Social Mediation, democratic innovation and the Cyprus conflict, Dr Katerina Antoniou (Assistant Professor UCLan Cyprus) and Prof Stéphanie Laulhé Shaelou (Head, School of Law UCLan Cyprus).

Part III: Critical perspectives

The final part brings the book to a full circle through two unique contributions written by two of the world’s leading authors on restorative justice. It aims to offer a critical perspective on the book’s themes, while providing an overview of the contributions made by each chapter.

Chapter 12 – Old words for new narratives: linguistic obstacles to redefine how we co-exist and accept the other pre and post war and conflict. Grazia Mannozzi (Full professor of Criminal Law and Restorative Justice at the Università degli Studi dell’Insubria, Italia)

Chapter 13: Reimagining Ecological Collaboration as Deliberative Peace work, Prof John Braithwaite (Australian National University)

Epilogue: Professor Theo Gavrielides

Index