IOI | Next Best Practice Paper deals with mediation as an effective tool in complaint investigation

The mediation process is a tool that enables personal interaction and respectful and direct dialogue for promoting dispute resolution. It has existed in many countries for several decades as an alternative to the legal procedure and as a language capable of uniting disputing parties.

The office of the Ombudsman of Israel began to use mediation as part of its toolbox in 2008 and became acquainted with the many advantages of the process as an effective and useful tool for complementing the classic complaint investigation procedure. Over the years, the office gradually institutionalized the mediation procedure and the experience has shown that the integration of public mediation processes into the work of the Ombudsman institution enhances the complainants’ satisfaction with the complaint-handling procedures and fortifies their faith in the public authority.

Issue 8 of the IOI’s Best Practice Paper series was written by the office of the State Comptroller and Ombudsman of Israel, with the view to share the knowledge and experience the office has accumulated in this field. The paper reviews the main characteristics of the mediation process and its methodology and explains criteria for determining whether a complaint is suitable for mediation. It gives illustrative examples of successful mediation cases conducted by the office and elaborates on actions, which should be taken on the intra- and extra-organizational level. It also considers the barriers when receiving the consent of the parties involved, as well as ways to overcome them.

The IOI expresses its gratitude to the author of this paper, the Office of the State Comptroller and Ombudsman of Israel, Mr. Matanyahu Englman, and his competent team for providing IOI members with a paper on yet another relevant topic. We also thank our members, who provided input on their experiences in the field of mediation and which have been annexed to the paper as sidebar stories.

The IOI introduced the Best Practice Paper series with a view to providing guidance material on key features and to present and share best practices from Ombudsman offices around the world. All Best Practice Papers are available on the IOI website. If your institution would be interested in developing a Best Practice Paper for this publication series, please feel free to contact the IOI General Secretariat; we are looking forward to receiving your proposals for topics.

Source: IOI General Secretariat