On August 3, a single Mediation Day is held throughout Kazakhstan. On this day, the doors of mediation offices in regional, city houses of friendship and the councils of public consent of the Assembly of districts and rural districts are open to all.

The capital house of friendship, spacious and solemn building opposite the park “Zheruyik” was filled with friendship in its most legal sense. Professional mediators, practicing lawyers and judges shared their experience of peaceful pre-trial settlement of conflicts today.

Director of “Kogamdyk kelisim” KSU Nur-Akhmet Dosmukhamet welcomed the participants and gave the floor to the judge of the city court of Astana, Gulzhanat Rakhmetova.

 “For the first quarter of 2018, Astana courts considered more than 2,000 civil cases with the use of conciliation procedures. Including participation of mediators – 1539 cases”, – she reported.

The judge called meditation one of the criteria of a democratic society. This is the ability to negotiate, to come to a mutually beneficial solution through a joint search for consensus. This method of conflict resolution for Kazakh people is not an innovation – since ancient times all disputes in the Kazakh steppe were solved with the help of the Institute of biys.

—The present task of the state is to revive this institution. In fact, Institute of non-professional mediators is similar to the institutes of biys. It should be noted that today more than 100 professional mediators work in the capital and only 12 non-professional mediators are registered. We need to develop Institute of non-professional mediation, – Gulzhanat Rakhmetova said.

By the way, Assembly of people of Kazakhstan is actively developing non-professional meditation. As Chairman of the Kyrgyz Ethno-cultural Association Shavkat Issmailov shared with the website of the Assembly of people of Kazakhstan, today the role of non-professional mediators is growing at the Assembly, more and more applications for registration are submitted.

—We have one professional mediator in the center and now two non-professionals are registered. We have a lot of controversial issues in the markets among the representatives of our ethnic group, sometimes there are issues with migrants. We solve many disputes with the help of the Mediation Institute. We go there, talk, explain and about 80-90% of the conflicts solved in the pre-trial order, — Shavkat Issmailov said.

Lawyers consider the term “non-professional mediator” lawyers are not quite correct. As explained at the meeting, it is planned to approve the term “public mediator” in the new amendments to the legislation, which reflects the essence of this position more.

As Deputy of the Majilis of the Parliament Kemel Myrzageldy noted in his speech, a mediator is not a judge, he does not make a decision. He considers a case on the part, calms the parties and leads to agreement.

Speech of Kairat Tulegeyev, professional mediator and head of the Republican Public Association “Mediation Development Centre” caused a lot of excitement.

—It's good when we take international experience, but we have our own mentality, our historical roots, our own culture. Therefore, what works abroad is not always applicable in Kazakhstan, - said the mediator.

According to K. Tulegeyev, a mediator — it is the “Golden bridge” between people in society, who should return forgotten traditions such as respect for elders, respect for women and other core values.

—Today, mediation is called to bring our people back to their roots. In regards to people to keep their words, their commitments. As before in the steppe, if someone broke his word in the rorthern region, in all other regions already knew about it and did not communicate with him. Today, mediation is called to solve these issues so that people give guarantees to each other. And mediator’s work is to conduct propaganda of this culture in the society, — Kairat Tulegeyev concluded.

Kazakhstan prepares international mediatorov as well, in the opinion of the head of centre, they need to share our culture outside of Kazakhstan. According to him, Kazakh mediators visited such countries as Israel, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Russia and a number of other countries.

Surprisingly, peaceful conflict resolution is also applicable in education. Director of “International school of mediation, management and law” Assel Sailaubay shared unique experience in the implementation of mediation in schools. It is in childhood, as the speaker noted, all the qualities necessary for successful interaction in society are instilled.

School mediation service has been established on the basis of school gymnasium No. 26 in Astana. The main subjects of disputes among students, according to Assel Sailaubay are conflicts on ethnic grounds, on the basis of social cleavages due to the migration of students. In these cases, mediators and child psychologists with the participation of parents of children help them to resolve the situation, if necessary to adapt to new conditions.

The most striking was the example given by the mediator from practice, where the whole class was involved in the conflict.

–Two girls in the third grade divided into two groups and quarreled the whole class. When we started working, it turned out that the mothers of these girls were at war with each other, and they compelled them not to play with each other. There is not such animosity between the children themselves and then we began to work with parents, and subsequently, the classroom environment has stabilized, — Assel Sailaubay said.

As the meeting shows, the range of using mediation is much wider than one might think. And its potential in Kazakhstan and abroad is incredibly large. Maybe someday Kazakhstan will bring mediation law to the world, Kairat Tulegeyev expressed his hope.

Someone of the participants jokingly finished the most peaceful legal event with a quote from the cartoon: “Let’s live in friendship”.

Дата события ассамблеи: 03.08.2018

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