{"id":3287,"date":"2026-10-06T19:28:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T16:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amhsc.gov.et\/?p=3287"},"modified":"2026-10-06T19:28:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T16:28:16","slug":"judges-receive-briefing-on-court-annexed-mediation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amhsc.gov.et\/?p=3287","title":{"rendered":"Judges Receive Briefing on Court-Annexed Mediation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bahir Dar, September 26, 2019 E.C. (Amhara Region Supreme Court)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capacity-building training sessions aimed at enhancing the knowledge and skills of judges in the Amhara Region on various judicial and justice-related matters have continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of today\u2019s session of the conference, judges of the Amhara Region received a briefing entitled \u201cImplementation of Court-Annexed Mediation in Federal and Amhara Region Courts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The presentation was delivered by Assistant Professor Worku Yaze, Special Advisor to the President of the Amhara Region Supreme Court, and Dr. Yonas Girma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The training covered the concept of court-annexed mediation, its legal framework, its interaction with the regular judicial process, the experience of federal courts, and the pilot implementation of court-annexed mediation currently underway in the Amhara Region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his presentation, Assistant Professor Worku Yaze presented the findings of an assessment conducted to evaluate the implementation of court-annexed mediation, which is currently at its initial stage in the Amhara Region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained that the assessment was aimed at identifying the current status of the pilot implementation, its positive aspects, gaps and challenges encountered, as well as areas requiring further attention and action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Explaining the importance of court-annexed mediation, Assistant Professor Worku noted that its implementation is necessitated by the need to expand access to justice and provide members of the public with additional avenues for resolving disputes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained that, since it is difficult to provide timely and effective solutions to all justice needs of society solely through the conventional court system, court-annexed mediation can serve as an alternative mechanism for delivering justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mediation, he explained, is a process that naturally helps resolve conflicts arising from misunderstandings in interpersonal, family, social, and other relationships through dialogue and mutual agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He further noted that reducing the workload of courts is one of the benefits of mediation, rather than its primary objective. The main focus, he emphasized, is to reduce the time, cost, and burden borne by justice seekers and enable them to resolve their disputes through discussion and voluntarily agreed solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The presentation also covered in detail the major principles of court-annexed mediation, the qualifications and standards required of mediators, and how mediation can be integrated with the regular judicial process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, Dr. Yonas Girma presented the court-annexed mediation system operating in federal courts, drawing comparisons with mediation experiences in different countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Dr. Yonas, court-annexed mediation may be conducted either voluntarily or, where provided for by law, on a mandatory basis. He stressed the need to clearly identify which types of cases should be subject to mandatory mediation and which should be excluded from such a process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also explained that key principles governing the mediation process include confidentiality, impartiality, and respect for the voluntary participation of the parties. Even where participation in mediation is legally mandatory, he noted, safeguards should be in place to ensure that participants are not subjected to undue pressure to reach an agreement through the mediator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Explaining the experience of federal courts, Dr. Yonas stated that trained mediators participate in the mediation process, while judges do not directly serve as mediators. This arrangement helps prevent information obtained during mediation from being mixed with or improperly used in the regular judicial proceedings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He further explained that court-annexed mediation requires a distinct institutional structure, including a mediation coordination office accountable to the court, as well as the necessary human resources and operational procedures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The experience of federal courts also shows that mediation is integrated into the litigation process. Under this arrangement, parties are given a designated period to appear at a mediation center and seek to resolve their disputes through dialogue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, recalling that the mediation system in federal courts has been strengthened through two major implementation phases\u2014pilot implementation and full-scale implementation\u2014the presentation highlighted that the strengths and challenges observed during both phases could provide valuable lessons for the pilot implementation currently underway in the Amhara Region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Participating judges shared their views on the subject and raised questions, which were addressed through responses and further explanations from the presenters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The training was aimed at enhancing the knowledge and capacity of judges in the Amhara Region regarding court-annexed mediation and creating a common understanding that would contribute to the successful and effective implementation of the pilot mediation program launched in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conference will continue tomorrow with discussions on various judicial and justice-related matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bahir Dar, September 26, 2019 E.C. (Amhara Region Supreme Court) Capacity-building training sessions aimed at enhancing the knowledge and skills of judges in the Amhara Region on various judicial and justice-related matters have continued. As part of today\u2019s session of the conference, judges of the Amhara Region received a briefing entitled \u201cImplementation of Court-Annexed Mediation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amhsc.gov.et\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amhsc.gov.et\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amhsc.gov.et\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amhsc.gov.et\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amhsc.gov.et\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3287"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/amhsc.gov.et\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3301,"href":"https:\/\/amhsc.gov.et\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3287\/revisions\/3301"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amhsc.gov.et\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amhsc.gov.et\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amhsc.gov.et\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amhsc.gov.et\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}