On 10-13 March 2020, Dr. Mohamed Hafez, Legal Advisor to the Director of CRCICA, attended the 6th SOAS Conference on Arbitration in Africa: Legal Culture and Arbitration/ADR Practice in Africa, held at the CMAG-GICAM Headquarters in Douala, Cameroon. The Conference was organized by SOAS University of London jointly with Groupement Inter-Patronal du Cameroun (GICAM), and Centre for Mediation and Arbitration of GICAM.

Dr. Hafez delivered a speech at the 7th panel of the Conference titled “International Developments in Mediation and their Implications for the Continent” which was moderated by Professor Hiro Aragaki, Neutral at JAMS & Professor of Law at Loyola Law School. In his speech, Dr. Hafez discussed the rise of Dispute Boards (DB) as a method of Alternative Dispute Resolution, the types of DB (Dispute Review Boards [DRB] & Dispute Adjudication Boards [DAB]), the successful history of DB in finalizing disputes, before reaching litigation or arbitration and how are the decisions of DAB treated later from a practical point of view in arbitration cases from arbitral tribunals’ perspectives

Dr. Hafez finally highlighted that CRCICA is in the process of publishing its own Dispute Board Rules very soon. Such Rules have been formulated through the invaluable expertise of an international committee including practitioners and experts in the fields of construction and dispute board resolution worldwide.