Local Profile

Situation of mediation in Serbia

Target groups for mediation are different ethnic, national, religious, media and political groups in Serbia and Montenegro as well as marginalized groups (ethnic, gender, disabled), refugees and internally displaced people. The types of mediation existing in Serbia at this moment are civil mediation, family mediation, commercial mediation, employment mediation, victim-offender mediation and peer mediation. With the exception of peer mediation all other types are in the form of court-annexed mediation. The Law on Mediation provides for all types of mediation, both in court-annexed and private setting. However, since mediation is in its early stage in Serbia, there is no private mediation practice developed yet.
Growth for mediation is to be expected in all areas (civil, criminal, commercial), whereas commercial and private civil cases are the most suitable areas for mediation to expand.

Challenges to mediation in Serbia

One of the main challenges mediation faces in Serbia is true acceptance by the judical branch and other branches of government, by lawyers and the public. Besides, mediator’s fee is a problem, since most of mediators work voluntarily and without any kind of compensation.

To overcome the challenges, education of students by offering mediation courses within regular school curriculum (at the University level) in addition to promotion of mediation through media (interviews, conferences, etc.) can help to increase the acceptance and the profile of mediation. Further, well educated mediators conducting successful mediation would indirectly promote and convince to make use of mediation as a method for resolving disputes. Also the education of judges and lawyers on the benefits of mediation would be a significant support to promote mediation, since they are on a regular contact basis with potential mediation clients.
Apart from an expected financial support from the government, government officials should mention the method of mediation in the public whenever there is an opportunity for that. This, of course, implies a profound knowledge about mediation.

Training facilities for mediators

Training of mediators in Serbia is regulated by the Regulation on Training Program for Mediators (OG RS, no. 22/05). There were/are a couple of mediation trainings supported by different international organizations (US/AID, GTZ, European Agency for Reconstruction, IFC, UNICEF, etc.). The main problem is a lack of cooperation between the organizations providing these trainings and the fact that the trainings are still available for certain groups (judges and lawyers, rarely psychologists, social workers and others).
Further, there is a one year specialization program in mediation offered at the Faculty of Political Science. This program meets the Bologna requirements as well as requirements set up in the Regulation on Training Program for Mediators (OG RS, no. 22/2005).