The Chief Justice said with the passage of the ADR Act, 2010 (Act 798), Alternative Dispute Resolution has been elevated to a higher level to provide the needed impetus for making ADR attractive to persons in conflict.

She was delivering the keynote address at the opening of a training workshop on the ADR Act in Accra, yesterday.
The two-day workshop aims to herald the Act into operation and to sensitise the public about its benefits.

It is being organised by the Ghana Association of Certified Mediators and Arbitrators
(GHACMA).

In a statement, the President of GHACMA, Prof. Kofi Quarshigah said ADR will be one of the best methods of managing very delicate conflicts that will arise from Ghana’s emerging oil industry.

Prof. Quarshigah said disagreements between oil producing companies and communities, between oil companies and the government and between oil companies and their employees, among others can only be managed effectively through ADR.

He said although the mere passage of the ADR Act will not automatically inure to its utilisation by the generality of the citizenry, its passage after almost decade of its conception calls for celebration.

Prof. Quarshigah said GHACAM would want to see the litigation culture of the Ghanaian replaced by the ADR culture, noting, however, that the success of the implementation of the provisions of the Act will depend on the development of human capacity in the form of qualified arbitrators and mediators.

With the passage of ADR Act, 2010 (Act 798), the Arbitration Act is repealed.

Act 798 covers all aspects of ADR and provides a legal framework for the management of the various ADR mechanisms.

The Act makes provisions for mediation practice and covers all the well-known critical issues such as the appointment of the mediator, representation by lawyers in mediation, powers of the mediator and the status of the effect of a settlement agreement.

Section 82 of the Act makes the decision of the parties in dispute binding and enforceable as it applies in an arbitration award while section 89 makes it a criminal offence for a customary arbitrator to sit on a matter that is criminal.