Centres for Arbitration and Mediation
Casey Swegman, Alexa Swift and Laura Griffins have since May been working in the field in Kumba, Cameroon, on the Global Conscience Committees for Arbitration and Mediation (CAMs) project. They hope to create 30 Committees in various communities in the outskirts of Kumba before the end of their internship in August. Read a report by the interns below.
Any donation, large or small, would be a tremendous help to the interns, staff, and volunteers of GCI. In order to make the CAM training sessions as successful as possible we will need to provide mediation manuals, simulation handouts, human rights education materials and food to our participants free of charge. The costs of the training session have put a bit of a strain on the other GCI initiatives, thus any donation you can make to this project would not only be enormously helpful to the work of the CAM's team but to everyone working at GCI and benefiting from their continued service. Click the 'donate' button below to make your contribution today:
This summer, GCI is creating a new access to justice project which will target over thirty communities within and surrounding Kumba town in the South West Province of Cameroon. The project entails the formation of Committees for Arbitration and Mediation within each of the 30 communities. In late May we began meeting with the village councils in order to gather information on how they operate, on how they are viewed within the community and to introduce the idea of training in dispute resolution. Our plan is to continue these visits through June and to use the information we gather to ensure our workshops are appropriate and relevant.
So far we have visited most of our target villages along Mbonge road, including: Bai Panya, Kake II, Three Corners Bekondo, Big Bekondo, Kongo Bekondo, Mofaka Bekondo, Big Massaka, Kombone Mission, Three Corners Ekombe I and Three Corners Ekombe II. We have been well received by the majority of the councils we have visited and there appears to be an interest in the training we offer.
After a preliminary analysis the following trends have been found:
Of the thirty council members surveyed, twenty-three reported not having been adequately trained for their job as Quarter Councilors.Alternately, twenty-three councilors reported that the Quarter council is both fair and unbiased.
One hundred percent of council members surveyed reported that training in ADR would be beneficial to the work of the Quarter Council.
Furthermore, twenty-six reported that training would help reduce the number of cases taken to a higher authority, thus reducing the strain on the urban judicial system.
Although not a significant number, a portion of community members reported that local disputes have resulted in jungle justice, violence, isolation, excommunication, and social sanctions.
Additionally, twenty-two out of twenty-four community members surveyed stated that they would support training for councilors and community members.
The training will take place at the end of July with each community sending three individuals, hopefully including one councilor, one community member, one youth leader, and at least one of which is female. Those attending training will learn to be leaders in mediation and negotiation.The training will focus on mediation and negotiation techniques. Our hope is to also emphasize how important it is for the people who come to our workshops to help train other members of the council and their communities. We expect that our trainees will take on some responsibility for the work of the council and the continued use of the mediation techniques they learn with us. Furthermore, this training will allow for the exchange of ideas between council members of diverse communities.
Our overall goal with the training is to reduce the number of people who appeal decisions made by their local councils and take them to urban judicial system. We hope that this will reduce the number of people subjected to the costliness, corruption and delay of the formal justice system.
International intern, Casey Swegman of Georgetown University USA who arrived Cameroon May 4 has started a survey for the creation of 30 Centres for Arbitration and Mediation (CAMs) in Kumba and its surrounding communities this summer.
The CAMs will be created in Community (quarter and village) councils and will empower the councils to be able to handle petty disputes between denizens in a restorative justice approach that uses mediation and negotiation.
Global Conscience Chief Executive, Samba Churchill says the CAMs are the frontline feature of the Global Conscience Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Project that will be launched in the months ahead.
Discussing the ADR project with staff, interns and volunteers, Mr. Samba posited:
“Justice is currently a basic demand of the Cameroonian people. The Judicial branch is hampered by the over bearing power of the executive, and its organisation and functioning, which are very inadequate to the country's needs. There are several areas that need to be improved and can be summarized as follows: deficient access to justice, inefficiency of the system, lack of independence of the judiciary, cumbersome judicial proceedings, inadequate judicial inquiries, non procedural time limits, and arbitrary sentences. The poor functioning of institutions, the obsolescence of many laws, and the absence of basic guarantees relating to judicial authorities have led to a widespread dysfunction of the institution.”
He reiterated that the existing justice system in Cameroon is not functional to serve the needs of the Cameroonian society in general and the rural and indigent communities in particular. This situation, he adds, has created a climate not favorable for the development of individual and community wealth.
“In this context it is imperative to create out of court options to resolve disputes,” Samba said.
Meantime, Casey Swegman has already designed flyers for the communities and is working on questionnaires, while Volunteer Che Chrispus Neba is mobilizing Community leaders ahead of the survey.
Global Conscience hopes to create 30 CAMs – 15 within the Kumba urban Community and 15 in the rural communities on the outskirts of Kumba – before August 2008. GCI has assigned 4 interns, two volunteers and one site supervisor to the programme, while GCI’s Chief Executive will oversee the effective realization of the project.
Mr. Samba said Global Conscience hopes to raise funds from international, national and local partners including community members and leaders for the realization of the project. He also said Kumba is only a pilot region as global Conscience plans to create CAMs in communities all over the national territory.
Global Conscience is already making arrangement for the training of community members who will run the affairs of CAM assisted by GCI legal partners.
Casey Swegman has defined the Goals of the CAMs thus:
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To improve the timeliness and quality of dispute resolution on the local level
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To help improve the work of the Quarter Councils
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To ease the strain on the urban judicial systems
To reduce detention time as well as eliminate costly bail payments
GCI CEO is very optimistic that CAMs would reduce the incidents of jungle justice and corruption within the judiciary.
News Release
Global Conscience Initiative will from 21 – 28 July train ninety council members from thirty neighbourhoods and villages in and around Kumba on mediation and arbitration.
Global Conscience will hold the workshops in her conference hall opposite the High court in Kumba to assist with the establishment of Centres for Arbitration and Mediation (CAMs) in 30 community (neighbourhoods (quarters) and villages) councils in and around Kumba city.
These workshops are run at the request of local communities which were interviewed by GCI staff and international interns throughout May and June. Council and community members expressed a desire for improved out of court options to resolve low level disputes. Global Conscience will provide training on how to set up CAMs to supply restorative approaches to justice. This forms part of the wider Access to Justice Programme at GCI.
The central aims of the CAMs project are:
· to improve the timeliness and quality of dispute resolution on the local level
· to help improve the work of the Quarter Councils
· to ease the strain on the urban judicial systems
· to reduce detention time and eliminate costly bail payments.
At the workshops GCI staff and interns will present the theory behind the Centres of Arbitration and Mediation, use simulations to demonstrate how they operate in practice, and equip attendees with the skills to teach their own community councils to use the system.
Casey Swegman, an intern on the CAMs project, hopes that “These workshops will provide council and community members with the training in mediation techniques which are key to addressing tribalism, favouritism and corruption at the local level.”
Attendance at the workshops has been organised on a regional basis to enable neighbouring communities to get to know one another better and to share advice.
Workshops will begin at 9am. Attendance is by invitation only. Media representatives who wish to attend are requested to contact Global Conscience Initiative on (237) 33 03 06 13.
For more information please contact Kate Armstrong (Communication Officer) at info@gcicameroon.org .
Thanks for keeping the promise with Global Conscience Initiative.