People's mediation

I. What is people’s mediation?

The term “people's mediation” refers to a process that a people's mediation commission persuades the parties concerned to a dispute into reaching a mediation agreement on the basis of equal negotiation and free will and thus solves the dispute between them.

People's mediation commissions are mass-based organizations legally formed to settle disputes among the people and would not charge fees for the mediation of disputes among the people.

Note: People's mediation logo will be placed in relevant organizations such as people's mediation commissions, people's mediation offices and China National Association of People's Mediation Work.

II. Advantages of the people's mediation system

Different from administrative mediation and judicial mediation, people’s mediation is a non-litigation dispute settlement method with Chinese characteristics to settle disputes, resolve conflicts and improve harmony, praised as the "Oriental Experience" by the international society. It inherited many good Chinese traditions such as the thought that “harmony is valuable” and coordinated with socialist legal system.

People’s mediation covers a wide scope and is flexible, low-cost and highly efficient. With great vitality, it plays a fundamental role in diversified dispute resolution.

III. Legal basis and policy support

People’s mediation system is explicitly stipulated in laws like the Constitution, the Civil Procedure Law, Organic Law of the Villagers Committees and Organic Law of the Urban Residents Committees of the PRC.

The People's Mediation Law of the People's Republic of China, which was adopted at the 16th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 11th National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China on August 28, 2010, is China’s first comprehensive and specialized law on people’s mediation.

The CPC Central Committee and the State Council has always paid high attention to people’s mediation. It is emphasized in the 18th National Congress of the CPC and the 3rd and 4th Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the CPC that we need to further improve the joint working mechanism for people's mediation, administrative mediation and judicial mediation.

During the 4th Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the CPC, it is specified in the Central Committee Plenary Session files for the first time that we should enhance the establishment of industry-specific and professional people’s mediation organizations and expand the team of people’s mediators. On April 21, 2014, President Xi Jinping mentioned during the report by Ministry of Justice, “People’s mediation…is also very important and should be actively promoted to make new achievements.”

In December 2015,clear requirements on people’s mediation was provided in Implementation Outline for Building a Government Ruled by Law (2015-2020)issued by the Central Committee of the CPC and the State Council as well as Opinions on Improving the Mechanism of Diversified Dispute Resolution issued by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council.

IV. Status quo of people’s mediation

Up to the end of 2016, China has nearly 800,000 mediation organizations, covering almost all counties, villages and communities in China. Among them, there’re 45,000 professional, industry-specific people’s mediation organizations dealing with medical disputes, transportation, labor and property disputes etc. There’re over 3.8 million people’s mediators in China. Over 9 million disputes are processed every year with a success rate of more than 96%.