His Excellency Sheikh Khalid bin Ali Al Khalifa, Minister of Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments, issued, after the approval of the Supreme Judicial Council, Resolution No. (96) of 2021 regulating mediation in legal matters, and the resolution - which was prepared in cooperation with the Supreme Council for Women - defined this mediation as all A process in which the parties request another person called “the mediator” to assist them in their quest to reach a settlement agreement in which family disputes that did not reach the judiciary, family disputes, or legal claims that are exclusive to the Sharia judiciary may be reconciled.
The resolution specified the issues in which conciliation is permissible through mediation, in that they are personal status issues related to guardianship over oneself, such as divorce cases of all kinds, including the request for khul’, expenses and wages, custody of the young child, his custody, seeing, joining and moving with him, the marital home and the maintenance of pleasure, and dowry lawsuits, and other matters. Personal status claims for self-government.
The decision stipulates that the General Registrar's office prepares a table called (the table of mediators) in which the approved legal mediators are registered, and the table is published on the ministry's website.
On this occasion, His Excellency the Minister of Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments stressed that this decision represents a new and qualitative development at the level of the justice system in the Kingdom of Bahrain, and comes within a package of priority decisions to enhance family and societal stability, activate justice procedures in line with contemporary requirements, and achieve initiatives to enhance access to Justice 2021-2025.
His Excellency also affirmed the ministry's keenness to sustain the process of reviewing and developing policies, legislation and services that support family bonding and protect the entity of the Bahraini family. He said that the new decision creates a new legal path for resolving family disputes, and includes specialized tracks in dealing with these disputes.
For her part, Her Excellency Ms. Hala Al-Ansari, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Women, praised the keenness of His Excellency Sheikh Khalid bin Ali Al Khalifa, Minister of Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments, for permanent cooperation with the Council in order to continue developing methods for settling family disputes through many methods, including mediation, family reconciliation and others. Her Excellency affirmed that Resolution No. (96) of 2021 regulating mediation in legitimate issues represents a qualitative leap in addressing family disputes with alternative solutions and methods that seek to help the parties reach a friendly and consensual settlement.
Al-Ansari considered that the provision of the mediation service will undoubtedly extend the umbrella of the services of the family reconciliation offices and speed up their processes in amicably settling family disputes by opening the way for civil and private bodies working in the field of family counseling to make all necessary efforts in order to rebuild ties between individuals to reach an agreement. about their family disputes and address issues related to their personal disputes, taking into consideration the needs of all parties, including children.
It is worth noting that the stability of the family comes as the first area in the national plan for the advancement of Bahraini women, given its important priority by providing all options to secure the economic and social needs of women and enhance their health and psychological safety, as the Council seeks, in cooperation with all partners and allies, to strengthen the legislative and legal system that guarantees this. First, developing family counseling and reconciliation services and supporting infrastructure to provide prevention and social protection in a manner that preserves the privacy of women and children within the framework of codifying family provisions, and developing decisions and executive regulations in this regard, with a commitment to implementing continuous awareness programs in the field of legal and family culture.