ACCESS Success Story: Course for Mediators Strengthened to Reflect a Rights-Based Approach




"In a successful mediation, the parties walk away, feeling they both won, unlike in litigation where only one party wins" said Judge Mona Lisa Tiongson-Tabora (pictured above), Chief of the Philippine Mediation Center Office (PMCO). 

In September 2019, ABA ROLI, in partnership with the Philippine Mediation Center Office (PMCO), conducted a two-day Curriculum Review and Consultation Workshop to discuss revisions to the country’s Court-Annexed Mediation Curriculum. The workshop is part of ABA ROLI and USAID’s five-year, ACCESS to Justice project that works with local partners to raise public awareness on human rights and provide legal services to vulnerable populations. ACCESS is strengthening alternative dispute resolution mechanisms and supports judicial reforms to expand access of vulnerable populations to the judicial processes.

At the end of the review, participants recommended changes to the curriculum across three key subject areas: mediation, facilitation, and social context skills. Among the topics recommended by the experts were a rights-based approach to mediation, the acknowledgment of options between disputants, and the incorporation of gender, diversity, and indigenous traditions through mediation processes.

Atty. Brenda Jay Mendoza - Angeles, ABA ROLI Consultant for Mediation Curriculum Review during the plenary discussion on the proposed changes.
“This is the first time that the mediators’ training will include a module on sensitivity to gender, indigenous traditions, and power imbalance,” said Ulidia Mabansag, an attorney at PMCO. “Mediators should be sensitive to power imbalance to be an effective facilitator.” Judge Tiongson-Tabora concluded, “I knew then that I made the right decision moving from being a judge to becoming an administrator. The enthusiasm of the mediation experts in reviewing the curriculum and helping improve the skills of the mediators made me feel [that] I am at home. But, of course, who we are eventually helping are the people coming to the courts seeking justice.”


Philippine Mediation Center Office together with ABA ROLI, the Court-Annexed Mediation Curriculum Reviews Expert and the pool of mediation Experts representing various regions nationwide.

After the Curriculum Review was finalized, ABA ROLI coordinated trainings for stakeholders on how they can utilize it.

Learn more about ABA ROLI's work in Asia and the Pacific here.

Comments