Conflicts can occur when two parties do not want to understand each other. After a while the parties may become so entrenched that they cannot find a solution to their problem themselves. Even so such situations are difficult to mediate, it does not mean that the conflict cannot be settled in a peaceful and just manner. Here is an example of how ADHOC was able to find a solution in such a situation.
In 2009 the late Mr. Ma Mun, husband and father, passed away, leaving behind his wife VenEng, 63 years old,and stepdaughter Mamun Kimsour, 33 years old, both residents of Preak village, PreakKouy Commune, S’ang District, Kandal Province. Mamun Kimsour works as a garment factory worker at a Korean garment factory. The seeds of the conflict were sown when the late Mr. Ma Mun had left it unspecified what he wanted to happen with some of his property, namely his house and farmland, after he passed away.
On receiving the request to mediate the conflict, ADHOC conducted research on the background of the case and found the following:
The conflict arose in November 2012 when Ms. Kimsour learned that her stepmother, Ms. Ven Eng, registered the house and farmland of the late Mr. Ma Mun to her own name, excluding Ms. Kimsour.
Ms. Kimsour disagreed with this act of her stepmother as it excluded her from what she felt was her rightful inheritance, and submitted a complaint to the local authorities (village and commune). However, by December the local authorities had failed to act in regard to the complaint filed by Ms. Kimsour. Thus, on the 15th of December Ms.Kimsour submitted a complaint to Kandal court to have her inheritance rights sustained.
However, Ms. Kimsour lost the case at the Kandal court. Believing justice had not been served, she filed her complaint at Appeal court. As a garment worker, paying a lawyer to take on her case would have seriously strained her finances. Thus, she contacted ADHOC with the request to provide her with legal representation. It was at this time Ms. Kimsour learned about ADHOC’s ADR program and she requested ADHOC to mediate her case.
During the preparatory sessions, Ms. Kimsour explained that it was her objective to acquire 20,000.00USD from her share of the value of the house. Furthermore she felt she was entitled to 26m x 225m of the family farmland. During meetings with Ms.Ven Eng the ADHOC mediator explained that going through the court case could take a long time and would cost addition stress and money. This was confirmed by Ms. Ven Eng’sson, who explained that “his mother paid around 10,000.00USD for this case”. Thus Ms.Ven Eng agreed to the mediation and proposed two option from which Ms. Kimsour could choose: (1) receive 7,000.00USD for her share of the house and receive entitlements over 10m Provincial Coordinator for Kandal, organized the plenary mediation session, which was facilitated by, and held at, the Preak Kouy commune chief. During the mediation process Mr. Men Makara used the ADHOC ADR tool the experiences which he gained from the ADHOC training, to help find a solution to the conflict. At the end of the mediation process both parties agreed upon a compromise, which included Ms. Ven Eng to pay 10,000.00 USD and give 10m x 100m of farmland to Ms. Kimsour for which Ms. Kimsour would drop the charges at the Appeal Court in return. The agreement was signed and implemented by both parties on 13 July 2013.
This is just one of many cases where ADHOC, through its ADR program, was able to help Cambodians find access to justice. Furthermore, by assisting people to find a solution to their conflict together relationships are restored and long term conflict resolution skills are developed. To learn more about the ADR section and its work please contact Mrs. Chhan Sokunthea , through email chhansokunthea@yahoo.com org cell phone 012 344 719/016 873 209 or browse the ADR section pages.
