The Inter-Community Mediation Centre at Ashaiman has called for increased public awareness creation on Appropriate Dispute Resolution (ADR) among Ghanaians due to its immense benefits.
According to the Centre, the government needs to make conscious efforts to promote the concept of ADR, especially in the courts.
Mr Alfred Kwame Gudonoo, Head of the Inter-Community Mediation Centre in an interview with ADR Daily at Ashaiman, believed that a hike in awareness creation and education would help to drastically prevent many cases from heading for the courts for litigation.
Also, he said it would help to reduce to a huge backlog of cases bedeviling the country’s courts.
“ADR has become an integral part of daily living, and due to its nature it can settle even the most difficult of civil cases,” he said.
As part of the Centre’s contribution to the national drive towards the increased adoption of ADR, he said “we at the Inter-Community Mediation Centre have made it our goal to ensure quick and effective resolution to all disputes that are brought before us,” he added.
That, he believed would serve as a motivation for others to resort to the use of ADR mechanisms to resolve disputes in the community.
Touching on the work of the Centre, he explained that the facility has five mediators always on standby to aid parties in resolving their disputes.
Mr Victor Kwabla Nyadi, one of the Mediators at the Centre, also told ADR Daily that the key to the promotion of ADR is through its education and publicity.
“ADR has not received adequate publicity, and this is a significant factor why it seems foreign to most people.
“We at the Centre at times hold demonstrations and embark on community outreach to educate the public,” he added.
Regarding the operations of the Centre, Mr Nyadi said apart from divorce cases, the Centre receives all civil cases such as rent, marital issues and land disputes.
“For last year we received 997 cases with rent accounting for 495, Land-48, Marital issues-32, Child Maintenance-34, Debt Recovery-367, Labour -4, Commercial Contracts-6, and Execution of Estate-11,” he said, adding that 980 were successfully resolved, he added.
According to Nyadi, about half of the cases were referred to them by the police.
That, he said was because the Centre had been able to educate the Police on the benefits of ADR as such whenever a dispute is reported to the police, it is referred to the Centre.
My Nyadi called for support to enable the Centre to enhance its performance, saying it was currently battling with inadequate funding and infrastructure.
“We need amenities from the government,” he said, adding that such support would complement the voluntary service the mediators offer at the Centre for the benefit of the nation.
By: Fred Gadese-Mensah/adrdaily.com
