Interviews
#ThePrivateCaucus:Conversations in Confidence Interview Series: Mugeni Siwale Mulenga, Former Judge of the Constitutional Court; Mediator, Arbitrator, Founder of Center for Mediation and Arbitration
In this #ThePrivateCaucus:Conversations in Confidence interview, we feature Mugeni Siwale Mulenga, Former Judge of the Constitutional Court; Mediator, Arbitrator, Founder of Center for Mediation and Arbitration.
Mugeni Siwale Mulenga has served as a judge of the Constitutional Court since its establishment in 2016 and is the current Chairperson of the Judiciary Advisory Committee on Training and Continuing Education. Prior to her elevation to the Constitutional Court, she served as a judge of the High Court, where she actively promoted the use of mediation among litigants, which resulted in a number of cases before her court being settled in mediation.
In her fifteen years of practice as a lawyer preceding her appointment to the High Court bench, Judge Mulenga was a proponent of mediation as a first option in resolving disputes. As in-house counsel, she often represented her institutional clients in mediation.
She also played a key part in the establishment of volunteer consumer watch groups, whose tasks include the facilitation of complaint settlements between service providers and consumers.
She has served on various professional and state boards during her tenure at the Ministry of Justice, including: the Advisory Committee on Mediation and Reduction of Case Backlog, Advisory Committee on Gender, and the Research and Development Committee. She is a member of the Law Association of Zambia, the Water and Sanitation Association of Zambia, the Zambia Association of Women Judges, and the International Association of Women Judges. She is involved in many activities surrounding gender-based violence and children’s rights and protection.
Read the full interview below:
Q: What are your views and experiences regarding strategies to achieve effective and sustainable resolutions in mediation?
In order to achieve effective and sustainable resolutions, helpful strategies include reflections and questions on the resolutions and implementation process. These can take the form of probing and reframing questions, risk assessment and reality testing. They help the parties to objectively review and consider their resolution options in light of their priority interests and needs as well as hedge the implementation stage from possible challenges and risks.
Q: From your perspective, what are some of the key considerations the Committee keeps in mind when designing Maxwell Challenge?
Two among the key considerations when designing the competition are realistic mediation process or practice and opportunities for multiple practice and exposure. These are essential to enrich the experience of students and give them a test of real life mediation. Hence, the competition incorporates a pre-mediation component and an online or virtual segment, mirroring the current trends and practice. In terms of multiple practice and exposure, the competition offers participants a number of sessions in the preliminary rounds with opportunities to access and receive coaching and feedback from seasoned mediation professionals and experts.
Q: What key professional skills does the Maxwell Challenge aim to cultivate, and why are they essential for effective dispute resolution?
The Maxwell Challenge aims to foster negotiation, communication and facilitation skills. These skills are key in both the process of execution and outcome of the mediation and are thus the core of mediation practice which speaks to interests and needs based negotiated solutions for disputes. For effective dispute resolution, one needs to apply different approaches and techniques in the use of these skills in exploration of parties’ interests and throughout the mediation process.
