Other link: http://www.kasiyamaliro.org/ 
Month: August 2013
By Evans K. Chama, M.Afr
Published in the Saturday Post, Saturday August 3, 2013
Slavery was made illegal a long time ago but it has never been abolished. It is still here today in various forms and women are among its victims. It may sound exaggerated to label the violence that women suffer as slavery. Nonetheless, the situation of gender relations shows sufficient traits that are typical of slavery. That is why we must be aware of this violence which goes often unnoticed.
Firstly, let us refresh our understanding of slavery. Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property, traded and subjected to forced work. It is also a relationship whereby one person has absolute power over another, controlling his/her life and liberty. We speak of chattel slavery when people are treated as property that can change hands like commodities. In bonded labour a person is in some kind of debt which he/she has to pay by fulfilling certain roles. And we have forced labour when one is obliged to work or do something against his/her will. READ MORE
Howard Zehr is widely known as “the grandfather of restorative justice,” he began as a practitioner and theorist in restorative justice in the late 1970s at the foundational stage of the field. Zehr continues in this third decade to deepen the principles of restorative justice and grow its practice worldwide. He has led hundreds of events in more than 25 countries and 35 states, including trainings and consultations on restorative justice, victim-offender conferencing, judicial reform, and other criminal justice matters. In this interview he says that prisons in US are basically trauma factories, much of the time, prisons are just totally counterproductive from a rehabilitation stand point. He also says that forgiveness is a wonderful and powerful experience but cannot be forced on people. He challenges and deconstructs today’s predominant retributive justice system. He invites us to experience justice as a restorative process that combines the best of the indigenous traditions combined with modern human rights sensibilities. Finally he shares with us his creativity infusing art in justice work. READ MORE
