Türkiye Adalet Akademisi Dergisi

Öz

Being the manager of the reconciliation process, the conciliators are confronted with many problems. The issue of trust is perhaps the most common problem that conciliators face in practice. In parallel with the development of technology and the increase in the number of fraud crimes committed over telephone/information systems, the conciliators who are not sufficiently introduced and are unknown in society may face the issue of trust as to whether they are conciliators or not, at the very beginning of the reconciliation process, when they first contact the parties. There are also problems that conciliators are confronted with in the functioning of the conciliation process in practice, besides that the necessary environment for the comfortable and reliable execution of reconciliation is not established in some courthouses, the reconciliation fee and especially the usual travel expenses are considered low according to today’s economic conditions, different practices are encountered in different offices. Likewise, the conciliators also have some other problems, such as the fact that the parties are indifferent to the reconciliation process.
Existing within the structure of Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, the conciliation office is the unit responsible for the implementation of the conciliation institution in the courthouses. The Office is made up of the prosecutor and other personnel who follow the appropriate execution of the reconciliation proceedings and should advise the conciliator on any problems that arise throughout the process. In fact, the reconciliation prosecutor and other personnel, who have the same common goal as the conciliator, consider the reconciliation process as an additional/burden work due to reasons such as the fact that the prosecutor’s office in the courthouse has to work on more than one subject at the same time, the workload and the lack of personnel, especially in courthouses that do not have heavy penal courts, and this poses a great problem for conciliators. The Department of Alternative Resolutions (ACDB) is also a unit established within the Ministry of Justice, General Directorate of Criminal Affairs (CIGM) in Ankara that aims to improve the practice and effectiveness of alternative dispute resolution methods such as reconciliation and has responsibilities related to the reconciliation process. The unit tries to generate solutions for the failures in practice through methods such as writing a guiding response letter for the opinions asked to them, sending guidebooks to practitioners, preparing promotional advertisements/posters etc. for the reconciliation, holding scientific meetings to increase the effectiveness of the reconciliation process, and monitoring the reconciliation offices on site. However, certain criticisms have been leveled at both the ACDB and the prosecutor’s office in terms of doctrine and practice.