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Roles of community advisor in community negotiations
1. Roles of Community Advisor in
Community Negotiations
By
RUN Saray
Executive Director/lawyer
Legal Aid of Cambodia(LAC)
30 May 2018
2. About Community Advisor
Legal Aid of Cambodia (‘LAC’) is a non-
government organization that is
independent, non-profit and non-political.
LAC provides free quality legal aid services, legal
and human rights education, outreach and
advocacy services to Cambodian poor people
since it opened its door in 1996.
Handled nearly 1000 cases within its last two years
of operation alone.
3. Role of the Community Advisor
Company Mediator Community
Community
Advisor
4. Role of the Community Advisor in the
Mediation
- Introduce and clarify
the role of advisor
- Assist community in
election of
representatives
- Provide Training
- Assist in the
preparation of
statement for
negotiation
- Provide backstopping
to community
- Ensure that
community
representatives can
regroup and reassess
position when
negotiation reach a
deadlock
- Participate and
provide suggestion to
mediator who meets
each party separately
- Explain to
community results
of the mediation
(i.e. interim
settlement
agreement, joint
draft settlement
agreement)
- Conduct training on
land registration and
titling and
enforcement of
agreement, etc.
Pre-mediation
During mediation
Post mediation
5. LAC assisted community members to chose their community
representatives and elderly persons at Pu Lu Village, Busra in November
2017
6. Explaining on Ground Rules and Congeniality of
agreement to community members at Pu Cha Village
7. LAC assisted community members to elect their
community representatives and elderly persons at Pu
Tert Village
8. Outcomes of Mediation
• At least 15 out of 40 different locations of
communal land conflicts were reached
agreement during the first four community
mediations.
9. Lesson learnt
• Mediation cannot be successful without good
faith intents, mutual agreement, and
participation from both parties.
• Empowerment of community representatives
is import for community to have more
confident for negotiation since their
knowledge is lower while the company’s
knowledge is higher.
10. Challenges
• Languages
• Low knowledge of writing and reading
• Many different types of land conflicts and different
land locations may take times for mediation.
• Time constraints
• LAC need repeat /remind community representatives
or community members as whole for many times.
• Law on NGO and Association restricted NGOs rights to
conduct activities in field.
11. Thanks for your attention!
RUN Saray (Mr.)
Legal Aid of Cambodia
#39 ( Borei Ritht), street 516, Tuol Sanke, Reiseikeo
Phnom Penh, Cambodia. ( P.O Box:1197 )
email: lacdirector@online.com.kh
Website: www.lac.org.kh
Run Saray
Executive Director/lawyer
H/P : +855-12 838 341
Editor's Notes
LAC has been requested by community representatives to be a community advisor to 5 villages for mediation of their land conflict between SocFin and communities which occurred for many years.
Because there is imbalance of power of negotiation between parties to conflict, LAC, with financial support from MRLG, accepted the role as community advisor who provides capacity building, legal advice and empower them for mediation and negotiation.
Pre-mediation
Meet with community members to introduce role of advisor and what advisor would help them and different types of conflict resolutions.
Help community members to elect community representatives and elderly representatives to participate in mediation process.
Train and provide coaching on role of community representatives, how to organized a meeting, take minutes, report to community members and prepare action plan.
Train them on land rights, land laws related indigenous people.
Train on negotiation techniques, how to collect information, what other party wants, needs, has interests and weak points and strong points.
Train on how to identify options and prioritize the option
Rehearsals or role play for negotiation to make community representatives feel more confident in negotiation.
Help them prepare and write statements for negotiation as some members cannot read and some members can read and write Khmer languages.
During mediation
Accompanied and gave advice community representatives during mediation process, if necessary.
Provide necessary advice or explain import points of issues raised by another party or strategy to the community representatives during break time.
Asked a mediator to break if found that it was tie and negotiation could not move forward.
Participated and provided suggestion to a mediator who meet each party separately.
Post mediation
Meet with community representatives to explain about interim settlement agreement of conflict resolution after a joint draft settlement agreement to make sure they understand all.
Advice them how to inform about outcomes of mediation to their community members without violation of confidential agreement.
Conduct training on how to register land tittles and process of land registration.
Conduct training on basic agreement, enforcement of agreement and other affection of agreement.