Malta’s former President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca has called for a more empathetic approach to issues like bullying in schools, urging for a “peaceful co-existence” with restorative justice at the heart of the approach.

“We need to resolve differences and conflicts, we need to understand each other, we need to empathise and respect one another. To achieve this requires a change in culture and a mental shift, which means we need to invest in our children. They are the ones who can bring the much-needed change to drive a culture of positive peace in our society,” Marie Louise Coleiro Preca said.

Coleiro Preca said this during a recent conference themed ‘A Journey to Resolve Our Differences: Investing in Children’, organised by the Malta Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society in collaboration with Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis and Education Minister Clifton Grima.

Numerous educators, university academics, psychosocial professionals, other stakeholders and civil society organisations were brought in to discuss how to enhance Malta’s first pilot project on restorative justice in schools.

“Study after study has affirmed that restorative justice initiatives in schools and courts produce positive outcomes, a conflict resolution professor told a conference gathered to discuss Malta’s first pilot project on restorative justice in schools,” the organisers said.

Susan Hirsch, who is also a professor of anthropology, said the studies showed victims expressed more satisfaction at the results with such initiatives, and people who committed offences were much less likely to do so in the future.

“When restorative approaches are valued in a society, broader social benefits, such as collaboration, care for one another, and sustainability also become more possible,” Susan Hirsch professor of anthropology at George Mason University in Washington DC said virtually at the conference.

Hirsch, who is running a similar programme in the US, will be providing technical assistance to the Malta Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society in implementing this project, as the government works to develop the necessary legislation so that the concept of restorative justice is effectively implemented in Malta.

Zammit Lewis said the government, together with MFWS, was working on introducing restorative justice mechanisms that did not rely on the justice system.

“We will start by investing in children to instil in them, from a young age, the value of seeking dialogue and communication over redress in the law courts. This innovative project complements the work carried out in the last months and will sow the seed to drive a shift in mentality. This project is testimony to this government’s investment in a more inclusive, empathetic society,” he said.