Sunyani, Nov. 13, GNA – Mr Alfred Tuah-Yeboah, the Deputy Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, has commended the leadership and members of the Bono Paramount Queen Mothers’ Association for the maiden annual conference and training workshop on mediation.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the workshop in Sunyani organized by the Association, in collaboration with the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS), Mr Tuah-Yeboah said Ghana had “veered into the trajectory of using Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) to bridge the gap between the traditional and formal legal systems as established in the passage of the ADR Act, 2010, Act 798.”
The two-day event on the theme “The Queen Mother in Mediation” was attended by Paramount Queen Mothers of both the Bono and Bono East Regions and representatives of the National Queen Mothers Platform.
It aimed at building the capacity and skills of the queen mothers to facilitate an efficient and amicable resolution of disputes and conflicts through the mediation process.
Mr Tuah-Yeboah said the Queen Mothers were “essential cogs in the country’s machinery of dispute resolution,” saying the training workshop had come at the right time to assist in clearing the chronic chieftaincy disputes in the two regions.
The Deputy Attorney-General said the low settlement rates of the many cases filed each year in the courts were exasperating the problem of dispute resolution and consequently leaving cases to languish for years, resulting in backlogs.
He said due to the judicial backlog and the inaccessibility of the courts to many of the citizenry in many cases, a chief or a queen mother might be the only practical dispute resolution option.
Touching on the nature of the mediation process, Mr Tuah-Yeboah explained it was voluntary since “decision-making is arrived at solely from the disputants without any force from the mediator.”
He said a mediator facilitated and controlled the process to avoid misinterpretation, misunderstanding and shifting attention to other matters which were not relevant to the dispute, saying “mediation is a consensual process in which a neutral third party helps others to negotiate a solution to a problem.”
Mr Tuah-Yeboah told the participants, mediators unlike judges or arbitrators had no legal powers to render judgement or an award but only used persuasion and goodwill to enable the parties in conflict to arrive at a mutually beneficial settlement.
In a welcoming address, Nana Yaa Ansua, the Paramount Queen Mother of Drobo Traditional Area in the Jaman South Municipality and President of the Association, said by their status as Paramount Queen Mothers, they needed to acquire mediation skills to facilitate efficient and amicable dispute and conflict resolution in their traditional areas.
Nana Ansua, who is also the Executive Secretary of the National Queen Mothers Platform, said the conference would be held annually to update their knowledge and skills in mediation.
It would also deliberate on issues of national importance and come out with suggestions to contribute to the efforts of the government for national development.
The programme, chaired by Madam Justina Owusu-Banahene, the Bono Regional Minister, was also addressed by Osagyefo Oseadeyo Agyeman Badu II, the Paramount Chief of Dormaa Traditional Area and President of the Bono Regional House of Chiefs and Dr Arne Wulff, the Resident Representative of the KAS, Ghana Office.
GNA