Sixty two graduates of the Institute of Paralegal -Training and Leadership Studies were at the weekend inducted into full membership of the Ghana National Association of Alternative Dispute Resolution Practitioners (GNAAP) in Accra .
This followed the completion of Executive Masters course in professional ADR,qualifying them to provide court- connected conflict resolution services to disputing parties across the country.
Court-connected ADR is the system accepted in law in which litigants opt for an amicable settlement through mediation.
The graduation and induction form part of the GNAAP’s annual Mandatory Continuing Professional Development Workshop held on the theme: “Initiating ADR Processes under the new Land Act 2020 ( Act 1036): What does the Law require of practitioners and disputants.”
The president of GNAAP, Mr Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, in an address, expressed the need for the government to invest in the promotion of ADR in the country to help resolve conflicts and dispute which were inevitable in every society.
The investment, he added should be in the form of supporting people appointed to high position of responsibility and trust with training in ADR since conflict resolution was a key management tool.
He said land acquisition had become a source of conflict in Ghana today to the extent that a quasi-militia popularly known as “Land Guards” had become an acceptable nomenclature in our national life.
As professionals involved in developing strategies to resolve conflicts, it is necessary for us to understand the different dimensions of conflicts relating to land and the laws to contribute to the resolution of disputes relating to land hence the decision of the governing board to select this year’s topic on the new Land Act, he added.
According to him, the practice of ADR exposes the practitioner to privileged information from disputants which would not be easily available in the court room litigation environment and that required very high professionalism based on the ethics of ADR practice of “confidentiality, honesty and neutrality.”
He added that an ADR practitioner was expected to be a person with very high integrity who could not be influenced by any material attractions.
Consequently, the GNAAP President said there should not be an occasion for any member to bring the good name of the professional body into disrepute.
“As Mediators, you are to stick to your mediation role and not to join the fray either overtly or covertly,” he concluded.
The National ADR Coordinator and Life Patron of the Association, Mr Alex Nartey, tasked the inductees to maintain high standards, professionalism and integrity in the discharge of their duties.
He urged them to be good ambassadors of GNAAP and endeavour to uphold all its rules and ethics as a certified profession body in the country as far as ADR was concern.
