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Public mediation symposium hosted by the Office of the State Comptroller and Ombudsman of Israel
On Monday, 23 December 2024, the Office of the State Comptroller and Ombudsman of Israel, in its capacity as "professional home" for sectoral ombudsmen and public complaints commissioners, hosted a symposium on the theme of public mediation for the internal auditors and public inquiries commissioners of local authorities.
The symposium was held in the presence of Mr. Matanyahu Englman, State Comptroller and Ombudsman of Israel, who emphasized the importance of mediation as a tool for investigating complaints, as well as the value of dialogue between persons working in the field.
Dr. Esther Ben-Haim, Head of the Office of the Ombudsman, reviewed the measures taken by the Office to promote mediation on the intra-organizational level and the extra-organizational level - including cooperation with community mediation and dialogue centers - and on the international level as well, whereby the Office of the Ombudsman prepared a Best Practice Paper on the subject of mediation, which was adopted by the IOI and published on its website.
Adv. Revital Rottenstein-Annani, Deputy Head of the complaint intake department and coordinator of the mediations program at the Office of the Ombudsman, presented the unique mediations program conducted at the Office. Mediators from the Office then told "Stories of Complaints" - Ted-style descriptions of cases in which the matter of the complaint had been resolved via mediation to the satisfaction of the parties.
There then followed a discussion about the advantages and challenges inherent in the use of mediation by local authorities, moderated by the head of the Be'er Sheva regional reception bureau of the Office of the Ombudsman. The panel was composed of the head of the complaint intake department at the Office of the Ombudsman; the Officer for Public Complaints within the Israel Police Legal Department; a mediator from the field of public mediation; a member of the Israel Bar Association Dispute Resolution Forum; and the head of a national program for promoting dialogue in the community.
Throughout the symposium, short skits were performed by an actor to illustrate the "metamorphosis of a complaint", each time from the perspective of a different party to the mediation, demonstrating through them the concerns, challenges and barriers facing them before entering into the mediation process and their eventual satisfaction with the procedure.
The symposium was held at the behest of, and in collaboration with, the Israel Association of Local Authority Auditors.
Source: Office of the State Comptroller and Ombudsman of Israel
