Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — The Ministry of Justice on Sunday announced that as many as 17,000 people have applied to register as conciliators at the Reconciliation Center under the ministry. Around 7,800 of those registered within the last 20 days are women, accounting for 46 percent of the total applicants.

This comes after the Ministry of Justice, represented by the Conciliation Center, has allowed men and women to register as conciliators. It allowed individuals of both genders or from the profit and nonprofit sectors to register as conciliators. They can practice conciliation out of courts or within the courtrooms. The conciliation minutes they issue will become executive documents once electronic approval was accorded by the Conciliation Center at the ministry. The ministry stated that the list of applicants included 278 university professors, 29 doctors, 344 accountants, 1,155 lawyers, 2,380 teachers, 211 engineers, and more than 14,600 applicants with a bachelor’s degree, while 1,785 applicants hold a master’s degree, and 417 applicants hold a doctorate.

The ministry confirmed that the applicants have pledged their commitment to more than 220,000 voluntary reconciliation sessions, as applicants are required to submit a minimum of 10 sessions within a year. The ministry indicated that the application phase will be followed by the completion of registration through a capacity test and passing courses and personal interviews. “The registered conciliator can involve in conciliation in several existing disputes between the two parties to one conflict, even if the conciliator’s area of specialization differs, and the resolution procedures will be fully digitized. They begin with submitting an application for beginning a conciliation process, then to submit a report whether it has been a success or failure, so that the minutes for the reconciliation sessions can be adopted in the court’s minutes via a remote digital system.”

The Ministry of Justice has given the registered conciliator the option to work as independent conciliator or in an office or both. He has the choice to charge a fee for providing his mediation services or provide his services for free. He can specify the number of free conciliation sessions per year, in return for registration at the center. The specialization fields include family, financial, criminal, traffic, real estate, commercial and intellectual property rights. Minister of Justice and Chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council Sheikh Walid Al-Samaani approved the new work rules that govern the procedures at the reconciliation offices as part of the initiative to activate the reconciliation system.