About Us
THE DISPUTE RESOLUTION FOUNDATION, formerly the Mediation Council of Jamaica, was incorporated July 1994 to increase cooperation in the management and resolution of disputes involving business, the police, courts, social service agencies and the people, through the controlled process of mediation.
Core funding up to 1996 was provided by USAID under the Sustainable Justice Improvement Programme. The Foundation seeks to implement a very successful model of dispute resolution which is widely used by businesses and courts in the U.S.A., Hong Kong, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. |
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Mediation in Jamaica Today
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The DRF has a panel of skilled mediators and trainers to resolve disputes, train mediators, and develop business, court-annexed, police and community dispute resolution, and arbitration programmes - appropriate options for dispute resolution, under the patronage of the Chief Justice of Jamaica.
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February 1995 to Sept. 2002, saw over 8000 persons being recipients of training or service, in Jamaica, Belize, Trinidad & Tobago, St. Vincent & Barbados. Participants included teachers, students, lay magistrates, community leaders, inmates, correctional service officers, attorneys, corporate executives, managers, line staff and young people.
PEACE & JUSTICE centres have been established in Kingston & St. Andrew, St. Mary, Hanover and St. James. Trained mediators are in St. Catherine, St. Ann, St. Thomas, Manchester, Portland, Westmoreland and Clarendon. These centres and mediators will offer mediation services and support the work of the police, courts, CBOs and schools in reducing crime and violence in Jamaica.
There is a corps of youth mediators trained through KRC, UNICEF & SDC as well as work done with forty-two (42) high schools and Teacher Training Colleges in the island.
Public awareness of MEDIATION has greatly increased as political parties, the correctional services, social development groups and the business community have begun to use our services to improve the workplace climate.
The DRF is implementing the Social Conflict and Legal Reform Project (SCLRP) of Canadian International Development Agency of the Goverment of Canada (CIDA) and the Government of Jamaica in Trench Town, Flankers and the Civil Division of the Supreme Court from May 2001 to August 2004. DRF is promoting parish programmes, innercity, school and domestic violence interventions.
Continued sustainability and institutional growth and strengthening will require a combination of corporate and international grants and donations as well as fees for service.
The following are some of the objectives of the Foundation:
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to establish methods of resolving disputes in Jamaica which are supplementary, complementary or alternative to litigation, called Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) techniques; |
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to encourage and educate the public about using ADR techniques to handle conflicts and differences without resorting to violence; |
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to establish several dispute resolution facilities in communities throughout Jamaica; |
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to explore and establish such ADR techniques as methods of resolving domestic, commercial, industrial, political and social disputes among members of the Jamaican community; |
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to increase the use of mediation services by the legal profession as a dispute resolution option. |
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(CARRERAS GROUP)
