A REPORT published last week Wednesday headlined "Disputes settled outside court in Flankers" was not a reference to extra-judicial proceedings but to the successful work of the Peace and Justice Centre in Flankers, St. James, a community which has in the past often made the news for other reasons. Many residents of this inner-city community in Montego Bay are opting to have their disputes settled by mediators as an alternative to the cumbersome court system and without resorting to private vendetta.
According to Marilyn Nash, the administrator of the two-year-old Centre and President of the Flankers Citizens' Association, "people prefer to work with a mediator to solve their family disputes and disputes with neighbours instead of working with the police or going to court. This method of settling disputes works." In fact the court has referred cases to the Centre with its mediators certified and registered by the Disputes Resolution Foundation.
Justice is fundamental to peace. So the Peace and Justice Centre, which resolved 30 disputes in its first year of operation and 20 last year, has been well named. The resolution of disputes at community level by non-judicial mechanisms has to be an important part of a justice system fostering peace. The office of Justice of the Peace in the English legal system which we have inherited grew out of just such a need and is in great need of strengthening in Jamaica today. More communities need more JPs effectively functioning as lay magistrates.
The concentration of justice in the formal court system, largely outside the community and accessible mostly through lawyers for fee, has not always served the interest of justice, or of peace, well. On the other hand we have seen the corruption of community-based justice in the grotesque system of 'donmanship' and community courts operating mostly in inner-city communities by-passing and rejecting the judicial system of the state. The Peace and Justice Centre of Flankers is a rejection of that illegitimate approach.
The administrator of the Centre is reporting a reduction in the number of disputes in the community, reflecting the peace spin-off from the delivery of justice through an accessible and trusted mechanism. The entire country needs to see a tremendous reduction in the violent means of settling disputes outside of court as well as an unclogging of the court system to better accommodate the judicial settlement of disputes as necessary.
In recent times some effort has gone into strengthening mediation through the police, in training and appointing mediators, and through the work of the small, Kingston-based Disputes Resolution Foundation. The magnitude of the cry for justice and the lack of peace speak of how much more has to be done. Non-governmental agencies for justice and peace like Jamaicans For Justice should consider broadening their scope of engagement to include the delivery of mediation services and not just being watchdogs barking against state injustice.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
