The Ministry of Justice's technical working group tasked with drafting the policy for dispute resolution outside the judicial system and 110 other stakeholders from relevant institutions, civil society and development partners have agreed on a concept document on the mechanism.

Justice ministry secretary of state and spokespman Chin Malin, who hosted the meeting, told The Post that the agreement came during the fifth and final consultation workshop held virtually on September 3.

“We have agreed on the basic principle of the concept document. So, the next step we will submit this concept document to the legal and judicial reform committee led by [justice] minister Koeut Rith for a decision,” he said.

He said that in the final step, the document will become a policy or a law on dispute resolution outside the judicial system.

The document lays out mechanism for out-of-court dispute resolution, including on how to set up relevant institutions at national and sub-national level, steps in implementation, review and analysis, and planning.

Dispute resolution outside the judicial system is part of legal and judicial reforms aimed at bringing justice service closer to the people and to reduce case backlog at municipal and provincial courts, according to minister Koeut Rith.