By Ben Musanje
5th June 2023
The Uganda Network on Law, Ethics & HIV/AIDS (UGANET) has proposed to the Judiciary to review the role of court mediators so that they are re-empowered.
The mediators are trained legal officers that settle disputes between two parties outside court.
Immaculate Owomugisha, the UGANET Head Advocacy and Strategic Litigation says that mediation helps in solving issues that would not be solved by court and also provides time for clients to heal and reflect on the matter.
She who was speaking to journalists after the Media/ Court Mediators workshop in Kampala added that mediation is very vital to people living with HIV/AIDs and without it, it creates a big vacuum on how people access justice.
Counsel Emmanuel Tusiime from Tumwesigye and Company Advocates in Bushenyi district also a court mediator in the South Western Region says that mediators are faced with a number of challenges including the lack of court rooms for mediation, threats from clients and lack of funds to facilitate their processes.
Civil procedure rules that provided for mandatory Mediation were amended in 2021 to give a presiding judicial officer the discretion either to refer or not to refer any-matter for mediation.
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