Howard Zehr, world-renowned practitioner and theorist of restorative justice, will be the featured speaker at the 2019 Vernon M. and Minnie I. Lynch Lecture on Oct. 30 at George Mason University. He is co-director emeritus of the Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice, and distinguished professor of restorative justice at Eastern Mennonite University’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding.
This year marks the 30th installment of the Lynch series, an annual lecture sponsored by the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution which features “ground-breaking approaches to analyzing conflict and promoting peace,” according to its website.
Zehr will speak on “Human Rights Meets Restorative Justice,” examining some of the modern-day challenges of enforcing human rights and how the legal system can contribute to injustice.
The lecture is especially appropriate considering the strong ties between CJP and S-CAR. Three long-term faculty members Lisa Schirch, Barry Hart and Gloria Rhodes, as well as CJP Executive Director Jayne Docherty (also a long-term faculty member) earned their doctorates at S-CAR and several CJP graduates are continuing their doctoral studies at George Mason.
Previous Lynch speakers include John Paul Lederach, the co-founder and first director of CJP; the president of Malta, Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca; and Paul Butler, a professor at Georgetown Law in Washington D.C. and former federal prosecutor.