China publishes guideline for building mediation rooms

BEIJING -- China's Ministry of Justice has released a guideline for building "mediation rooms."

Mediation rooms are organizations where civil and commercial disputes are resolved by mediators.

A mediation room can be established by one or multiple mediators, the guideline said.

According to the requirement for a mediator to be eligible for setting up a mediation room, the mediator must be fair, honest and have high public prestige.

The mediator must be kind, experienced in mediation, have a certain level of education and knowledge of policy and law, and have received awards from Party committees, governments above county level or relevant departments.

"Professional mediators, retired law practitioners, experts such as lawyers, and those who are revered are encouraged to become mediators," the guideline said.

Judicial and administrative organs shall offer training for mediators in forms including classes, workshops, case studies and trial hearings.

China has a "people's mediation" method to resolve disputes outside judicial proceedings. The Law on Mediation, which went into effect in 2011, established people's mediation committees in villages, urban communities, businesses and public institutions.

More than 9 million cases are settled through people's mediation every year, the ministry said in December 2017.

Except for "people's mediation," administrative and judicial mediation are also used to handle disputes.