A new regulatory body will be set up early next year to standardise the accreditation of mediators.
Co-founded by the Law Society, Bar Association, International Arbitration Centre and the Mediation Centre, the Hong Kong Mediation Accreditation Association will ensure accredited mediators comply with its code of conduct, and discipline those who do not. But it will not have the same power as the statutory bodies covering the legal and medical professions, so institutions that do not join can continue to train and accredit mediators.
As many as 50 institutions can accredit meditators, whose task is to help resolve legal disputes in civil cases without resorting to litigation. They come from all walks of life and can be as diverse as lawyers, accountants and air hostesses.
Andrew Chiu Ka-yin, chairman of the Mediation Centre's public-relations and membership committee, says the sooner the assessment of mediators is standardised the better.
The judiciary has promoted the use of mediation as a quicker, less costly alternative to litigation, which can also relieve the burden on courts. In 2010 the government set up the Mediation Task Force, chaired by Wong Yan-lung, justice secretary at the time, to bring forward the Mediation Ordinance, which was passed last month, and form a single accreditation body for mediators.
There are no official figures on the total number of accredited mediators, though Wong put it at around 1,600 in May.
John Budge, chairman of the accreditation group of the task force, said: 'Quite a lot of people would like to have a unified system for accreditation and have a common standard in Hong Kong. We want to create a premium accreditation body in Hong Kong.'