Georgia signs mediation convention in Singapore
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Thursday, August 8
Georgia has joined the UN Convention on Mediation. To this end, a Georgian delegation, led by Minister of Justice Tea Tsulukiani, is in Singapore. The delegation includes members of the Government of Georgia, as well as Chairman of the Arbitration Association of Georgian, Sopho Tkemaladze.
Tsulukiani signed the Singapore Convention on behalf of Georgia. By joining the Convention, the country has taken another step towards becoming a centre for alternative dispute resolution mechanisms in the region, which means developing into an arbitration and mediation hub.
Importantly, Georgia is one of the first countries to join the Convention. The text of the Convention was approved by the UN Assembly last year, on December 20. Its purpose is to create a unified international legal framework for enforcing mediation as a result of mediation in commercial and trade-related disputes, which will promote the development of mediation as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism. Singapore Convention provides parties with the opportunity to easily build and execute mediation settlement agreements in participating countries, thus contributing to the development of international trade as well as business relations and encouraging the use of mediation as an alternate solution for business disputes together with arbitration.
The Convention was signed by more than 40 UN countries, including Singapore, China, the United States, Israel, Iran, Turkey, Ukraine, Belarus, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and others.
During the visit, the Minister of Justice took part in the ministerial meeting on the topic: “Introduction of trust, development of international trade.” The minister talked about the importance of the rule of law and a fair court in the democratic development and economic growth of the country; she also stressed the importance of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms.
According to Tea Tsulukiani, the Georgian government is doing its best to establish strong mechanisms for arbitration and mediation in the country: “We have changed the legislation and harmonized it with the principles of international arbitration; We have created a legislative mechanism to guarantee the independence of arbitrators. The cooperation with the Ministry of Justice of Georgia and the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce, which ended in the memorandum was high of importance as well,” Tsulikiani said.
Minister of Justice also mentioned that the Parliament of Georgia is currently considering a draft law on mediation developed by the Ministry of Justice. She assessed mediation and arbitration as additional tools for encouraging economic growth and tackling the overload of cases in Georgian courts.
During the visit, the Georgian delegation is scheduled to participate in a high-level conference on arbitration and mediation. The event will be attended by the Georgian delegation of high-level officials and members of the judiciary.
In the framework of her official visit to Singapore, Tsulukiani will meet with the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Internal Affairs of Singapore. For the first time, Georgian delegation will also participate in the celebration dedicated to Singapore Independence Day.
