The Asia Foundation and the Ministry of Justice, Prison Affairs and Constitutional Reforms signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance the services provided by the Community and Special (Land) Mediation Boards.
Mediation Boards play an important role in amicably resolving disputes and providing access to justice to persons and wider communities, including marginalised communities. However, due to the political and economic crises in the country, the number of sittings of these boards was reduced to two causing a backlog of cases.
This has affected the efficiency of the boards in taking up new disputes, causing additional stress for persons and families seeking a resolution for their disputes. There is potential for system inefficiencies to undermine the confidence of the public in accessing mediation as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism.
To mitigate this, the Ministry of Justice, Prison Affairs and Constitutional Reforms requested support from the Foundation to continue the full sittings of the mediation boards.
This assistance is being provided through the “Supporting Effective Dispute Resolution (SEDR)” project, implemented by The Asia Foundation and funded by the British Council, as part of a grant by the European Union. The initiative aims to benefit the people by helping them resolve disputes peacefully in these challenging times.