A round table on the topic “Legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Mediation: State, Problems and Areas of Improvement” was held in the Senate. The round table participants discussed the bill on further improvement of mediation issues, which was developed by senators.
When opening the round table session, Senator Kanatbek Safinov, who acted as a moderator, noted that the judicial way to resolve legal disputes has taken the dominant position in Kazakh society.
“Today, the growth of cases being tried in courts, on the one hand, testifies to the high trust of citizens in the judicial system, and on the other hand, this fact also indicates a high level of conflict in society. Currently, courts are considering such cases, which generally should not refer to judicial consideration,” K. Safinov said.
Judge of the Court Collegium for Civil Cases Ulbosyn Suleimenova said in her speech that more than 90 mediator organizations operate in Kazakhstan and noted that the development of the mediation institute in the country is one of the new areas of the APK work. In addition, U. Suleimenova proposed a number of amendments to some articles of the Law “On Mediation”, as well as modifications to the Land Code, the Code on Marriage and Family, the Civil Procedure Code and the Labour Code. These include procedures to strengthen the marriage and family institute.
“According to the current version concerning divorce cases, the court does not perform any actions until the end of 1 month from the date of application to the court. It is proposed to extend this period to 3 months to allow parties to have more time to think about preserving the family,” she said.
Vice-Minister of Information and Social Development Daniyar Yessin told about the problems restraining wide development and application of the mediation institute. These include low public awareness of mediation procedures and low trust in them, lack of government control over the quality of training professional mediators by relevant organizations.
When speaking of mediation improvement in Kazakhstan, Chairman of the Board of National Chamber of Mediators RPA Svetlana Romanovskaya proposed to develop appropriate standards of education in universities and to include the “Mediator” specialty in the state register. Furthermore, she noted the importance of ensuring mandatory mediation in the protection of consumers’ rights, and in labor and family disputes.
Director General of Association of Mediators of Kazakhstan ALE Zhandilda Zhakupov offered to create a regulatory agency in the country, as the mediation institute in Kazakhstan is developing chaotically, there is a large number of mediator organizations with no unified system of coordination between them.
In conclusion to the session, Chairman of the Committee on Constitutional Legislation, Judicial System and Law-Enforcement Agencies Vladimir Volkov noted that Kazakhstan, with the development of national law, taking into account the international practice, has regenerated in a new way such form of reconciliation as mediation, but only in Kazakhstani realities.
“We already have sufficient international experience, efficient development approaches for this industry and our own experience. We only need to accept the things that are closest to our way of life, culture and mentality. Nobody doubts that we will achieve the expected result only through close cooperation, based on comprehensive professional study, and the mediation institute will find its significant place in the legal framework of Kazakhstan,” Volkov noted.
