About this project
FAIR-AFSC improves access to local justice for Indigenous and remote communities in Stung Treng and Ratanakiri provinces by strengthening the institutions that deliver it. In Cambodia's northeast, formal courts are distant and thinly resourced, with only 32 judges serving the four northern provinces, while local authorities receive around 9,000 dispute cases with limited specialized training. The National Authority on Alternative Dispute Resolution (NADR) is responding by establishing provincial representative offices that receive complaints directly from community members and provide free out-of-court dispute resolution services. WPM supports this from two sides: helping the new NADR provincial offices in Stung Treng and Ratanakiri become established and functional, and equipping NADR mediators with gender-responsive mediation and other skills their practice requires, drawing on WPM's Gender-Responsive Mediation (GRM) Guidelines, previously piloted in eight districts of Kampong Chhnang, Kampot, and Tbong Khmum provinces.
Current focus areas
- Training NADR mediators in mediation skills, gender dynamics, gender-sensitive principles, psychological first aid, and stress management
- Supporting the establishment, inauguration, and day-to-day operation of NADR provincial representative offices in Stung Treng and Ratanakiri
- Providing technical support to develop NADR's case record management system for more effective documentation and monitoring of dispute cases
- Providing ongoing coaching and operational support to strengthen the functioning of the new offices
Emerging outputs
- A growing pool of trained NADR mediators, a third of them women, applying gender-responsive mediation, psychological first aid, and stress management in their daily practice
- NADR provincial representative offices operating in Stung Treng and Ratanakiri, enabling remote and Indigenous communities to resolve disputes locally and free of charge
- A case record management system that enables NADR to document, track, and learn from the cases it handles
- Awareness of NADR's services spreading among the communities and local authorities the new offices are meant to serve