The National Judicial Reform Strategy for the period from 2013 to 2018 and supported Action Plan for the implementation of the Strategy gave priority, among others, to relieving the courts of their caseload by establishing efficient and sustainable system for resolving disputes through mediation – Minister of Justice Nikola Selaković said at the Second Annual Conference of the Serbian National Association of Mediators, which is being held in the Serbian Chamber of Commerce in Belgrade today.
Selaković said that such a mediation system may be established through the improvement of the normative framework, implementation of the standardisation procedure and accreditation of basic and specialised training programs for mediators, issuance of mediation licenses on the basis of clearly pre-defined criteria and, in this regard, creation of the register of mediators, as well as through the promotion of alternative dispute resolution methods.
He pointed out that the National Assembly adopted the Law on Mediation in Resolving Disputes in May 2014, which has been in use since 1 January 2015. “The Law envisages keeping the Register of mediators as a public central electronic database, and mediators’ contact information will be publicly published on the Ministry of Justice’s website to enable the citizens broad and easy access to the contact information” Minister Selaković said and added that 227 mediators have been recorded in the Register until November this year.
Selaković also reminded all the Conference attendants that a mediator shall be obliged to submit to the Minister of Justice an annual report on executed mediations which will contain data on the type of a dispute, place where the mediation procedure was conducted and the manner of termination of the mediation procedure by adhering to the confidentiality principle.
The Minister pointed out that, in addition to the issuance of mediation licenses, the ministry act also determined the Basic Training Program, whereas the Specialised Training Program shall be determined by a special act of a professional association in a specific field, upon consent of the Ministry. “Until today, the Ministry has issued licenses for the training of mediators for 4 organisations both in terms of basic training and specialised training in cases of discrimination, family mediation, mediation in cases of abuse at work - mobbing, advanced communication skills and negotiation, mediation in commercial disputes, bankruptcy proceedings, resolving disputes in the area of banking services, and leasing and insurance” Selaković said.
“What is necessary to be done in the following period is to develop the Program for mediation promotion measures as an alternative manner of dispute resolution, which would include further exploration of expert and general public with the novelties of the Law on Mediation for the purpose of raising awareness about mediation as an alternative method for resolving disputes” Selaković said.787
In the end of his speech, the Minister of Justice reminded of the provisions of the Ethics Code, which prescribe that a mediator shall, with their personal engagement, promote mediation practice, cooperation among intermediaries and experts from other mediation-relevant areas, and affirm the mediation procedure as a convenient and recommended method for peaceful resolving of disputes in a professional, truthful and dignified manner.