Community Mediation Centres launched

Dodowa, Aug. 8, GNA - Ghana on Wednesday enhanced accessibility to administration of justice with a national launch of an alternative dispute resolution system called Community Mediation Centres (CMC), meant to serve people mainly at the grassroots.

The Community Mediation Centres, an initiative of the Ghana Legal Aid Scheme and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) would reduce the pressure on the traditional courts, which are choked with cases.

It would also serve as a platform for individuals or groups in dispute to resolve disputes with the assistance of trained and neutral third party, referred to as the mediator.

Services at the centres, which were being piloted in the Asutsuare, Dawa and Ningo Prampram, all in the Dangme West District of the Greater Accra Region, are free.

Deputy Attorney General and Minister of Justice Kwame Osei-Prempeh, performed the launching at Dodowa, near Accra and expressed worry that the traditional courts were already choked and that it took at least two years before a case could be disposed of.

Mr. Osei-Prempeh said: "Even if you have the means to litigate, the courts are choked and litigation is expensive, so please take advantage of these centres, where you can get justice very speedily. "Let us help the centres to run by co-operating fully with the mediators and accepting their rulings in good faith." Mr. Osei-Prempeh told the mediators that though they were not professional judges, they would find themselves in the position of judges and should therefore live above suspicion and perform their duties impartially, and not to acquit the guilty and condemn the innocent.

Dr. Ozonia Ojielo, a Senior Governance Advisor at the Accra office of the UNDP, said one way to sustain the initiative is to retain national service personnel who had been trained as mediators under the National Youth Employment Programme and have them deployed to the Legal Aid Scheme.

He suggested to the Chief Justice to direct all courts to start making referrals to the CMCs, adding, "once the referrals start coming in many disputants will themselves start utilising the CMCs directly thereby reducing the dockets in courts."

Dr Ojielo suggested to all government institutions including the Office of the Attorney General, the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit of the Ghana Police Service, Social Welfare Centres, Child Panels, the Regional Coordinating Councils and the Regional Police Commands to be encouraged to begin making referrals of small claims to the CMCs. Dangme West District Chief Executive (DCE) Michael Adjowerh-Nortey promised that the District Assembly would endeavour to play a front role in making sure that the people derived the maximum benefits from the Centres when it came to the resolution of the conflicts in the District. "I will personally persuade people wit cases such as tenancy issues, child custody, parenting, property matters, and debt recovery referred from the law courts to these mediation centres for easy adjudication", the DCE said.