THE Executive Director of the West Africa Dispute Resolution Centre, Mrs Georgette Francois, has appealed to the government to expedite action on the passage of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Bill into law.
This, she said, would ensure uniformity in the implementation of the ADR practice in the country for prompt settlement of most civil disputes out of court.
The ADR is a mechanism that serves as an alternative to traditional methods for the resolution of disputes and generally involves the assistance of a neutral and impartial third party.
Speaking at a forum to mark the ADR week celebration at Koforidua on Monday, Mrs Francois said “it is time the government gave legal backing for the effective implementation of the practice in the country to reduce countless disputes that have overwhelmed our courts”.
The event which was held on the theme: “Enhancing Alternative Dispute Resolution—The Role of the Youth”, was attended by students and their teachers from all the second cycle schools in the New Juaben Municipality.
The forum was used to educate the youth on the role they could play in the settlement of disputes within their environment as mediators, and encouraged them to consider careers in the ADR practice.
Explaining the importance of the ADR practice to the judiciary process, Mrs Francois said, the practice could provide an enormous opportunity for reducing the number of disputes that had burdened most of the courts in the country.
“To ensure the effective practice of the ADR to facilitate the prompt settlement of disputes out of court on a win-win basis for the mutual benefit of both parties, the government needs to give a legal backing to the process, with the enactment of the bill, which has only existed in draft form for several years, ” she stated.
On the role the youth could play in the implementation of the ADR practice, Mrs Francois stressed the need to develop an effective strategy that would empower them to deal constructively with conflicts that occurred in their homes and schools, since the youth were instruments of peace.
This was to encourage the youth to understand and appreciate the fact that violence was not the only means of settling conflicts and misunderstanding among themselves, parents and teachers.
“It is time we helped our youth to acquire the needed skills in mediation efforts, to stay alert against people who will want to secretly recruit, brainwash, train and arm them to commit atrocities during conflicts, ” Mrs Francois added.
Besides the conflict-prevention benefits of the ADR practice to the youth, the problem-solving skills of students could result in a remarkable change in their attitudes.
This is because they could collectively work with their peers and teachers to create a calm and peaceful atmosphere that could enhance teaching and learning in schools.
The National Co-ordinator of the ADR, Mr Sanyo M. Adjabeng, said as part of efforts to entrench the practice in the country, a series of mediation recruitment programmes were held in Cape Coast, Takoradi, Ho and Koforidua in 2008 to identify, screen and select eligible individuals for training in court-connected mediation.
He also pointed out that since the inception of the programme on a pilot basis in 2005, 161 mediators had so far been trained and assigned to 45 district courts across the country, while 11 mediators had also been enlisted to handle cases in circuit and high courts in Accra.
Mr Adjabeng, indicated that 1,500 cases had been successfully settled in Accra since the inception of the programme, and expressed the hope that the ADR initiative would be extended to all district, circuit and high courts in the country by 2013.
The Eastern Regional Supervising High Court Judge, Mr Gbie S Suurbaareh, appealed to the people to embrace the concept to ensure the prompt settlement of cases out of court.
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