Mediation is better

The Ministry of Justice has announced plans to introduce a mediation procedure to be applied when examining criminal, civil and economic court cases.

The relevant draft laws “On mediation” and “On amendments to some legislative acts on mediation procedure”, drawn up by the Ministry of Justice, have been submitted for public discussion and all individuals, organizations and interested public bodies invited to make their comments.

The Minister of Justice Mykola Onishchuk explains that the draft laws have been prepared in order to bring domestic legislation into line with European Union and Council of Europe requirements.  They envisage the introduction of a specific mechanism in Ukrainian court proceedings which will guarantee people the right to mediation. A mediator would be available to try to enable the parties to resolve disputes amicably.

It is expected that this would ensure more equitable resolution of issues involving compensation for material or moral damages, and would also reduce the workload on courts. There will be legal regulation of the activities of civic organizations implementing mediation programmes.

The press release adds that there are plans to reduce the number of people being sentenced to terms o imprisonment. The mediation procedure could be used in cases involving minor or medium-seriousness crimes as well as crimes classified as serious, but committed through negligence.

According to estimates, such mediation procedure could be applied in the cases of over 101 thousand people.

From information at www.minjust.gov.ua