THE NEXT LEGAL SYSTEM WILL BE RESTORATIVE, TRANSFORMATIVE AND HEALING
WE ARE CO-CREATING IT NOW
ADR Network is a private dispute resolution agency in South Africa.
It exists to provide services in Alternative Dispute Resolution including mediation, arbitration and restorative justice problem solving. Train mediators, arbitrators and restorative justice practitioners. Regulate the conduct of its panel member mediators, arbitrators and restorative justice practitioners from its position as a voluntary compliance and regulatory body. Network together like-minded professionals involved in and with a passion for non-adversarial modes of dispute resolution, peacemaking and access to justice.
ADR Network SA was established by Sheena Jonker more than a decade ago out of her ADR practice and in response to the growing need for accessible and affordable mediation and arbitration services and training.
It provides services across Southern Africa and, sometimes, further afield. Its training has been sought out and attended by both local and international lawyers, judges, teachers, health practitioners, business persons, academics and many others.
It formed part of the Department of Justice Consultations on Court Annexed Mediation and many of its trained mediators and members have become accredited to the pilot project on Court Annexed Mediation.
GET TO KNOW US​
Ensuring equal access to justice and dispute resolution is a fundamental tenet of our mission. Alternative dispute resolution methods, which are less encumbered by the complex and artificial rules of litigation, provide better platforms for achieving this goal. Our approach is centered around teaching, developing, promoting, and practicing non-adversarial and non-exclusionary methods of dispute resolution that avoid the potential damage, and in some cases, destruction of lives. Through our emphasis on Restorative Justice, we teach and practice mediation and arbitration, which bring us closer to a peace that arises from the work of true justice.
THE FOUNDER
​
Sheena Jonker is the founder and CEO of ADR Network SA and Access to Justice. She holds a BA majoring in legal studies and religious studies as well as an LLB and is currently undertaking a Master of Laws in Constitutional Litigation.
In 1997 she was admitted to the High Court as an attorney and conveyancer and she practised as such for the first decade of her career. She has devoted the second decade of her career to the practice of alternative dispute resolution and restorative justice which she practices and teaches.
She has also taught law extensively. Subjects taught include Entrepreneurial Law and Commercial Law, Insolvency, Taxation, Labour Law, Evidence, Criminal Procedure, Civil Procedure, Communications Law, Sport Law and Media Law. As a law teacher, she was also consulted as a subject matter specialist and was retained to develop teaching and learning material. She is well known for and widely consulted for her ability to assist in bringing about resolution in complex and high conflict legal disputes. She is consulted as a mediator, arbitrator and restorative justice practitioner with special expertise in:
-
Commercial Mediation and Commercial Arbitration
-
Labour Mediation and Labour Arbitration
-
Divorce Mediation and Family Dispute Resolution
-
Intellectual property, taxation and insurance dispute resolution
-
Domestic Violence, Sexual Violence and Child and Victim protection
-
All her work is filtered through the lens of Restorative Justice
-
Through non-profit platform, Access to Justice, she also assists in mobilizing legal and dispute resolution resources for vulnerable persons and communities. Access to Justice has consulted widely, and in the main, successfully on behalf of:
Shackdweller movements and communities
The #feesmustfall movement. Its work centred on protecting legitimate dialogue, counter-veiling police and private security brutality and promoting and helping to build peace agreements
The #metoo #totalshutdown and #aminext movements. Access to Justice, lead by Sheena Jonker is facilitating the Phoenix Rising Project along with public interest lawyer, Tracey Lomax. This project is currently responding to victims who need assistance exiting violent situations, prosecuting and/or suing for personal damages on behalf of survivors and facilitating victim-centric restorative justice platforms where appropriate.
Sheena Jonker writes extensively and is a member of the international Integrative Law Movement, has contributed to J Kim Wright’s book, ‘Lawyers as Changemakers’ and has been published by Thought Leader and Media for Justice. Her work has also been shortlisted by the Hague Institute for Innovation in Law (2016).
Sheena Jonker can be contacted at sheena@adr-networksa.co.za
OUR GOALS
Assist in raising the profile of mediation and arbitration in South Africa.
Assist ADR practitioners in developing and growing their own practices.
Manage referral work that we gain,
nationally (and even internationally).
Provide a platform for practitioners
to network with each other.
Assist in the promotion of other
practitioners’ and organisations’
training programs.
To remain organic and to evolve according to the needs of ADR practitioners on the one hand, and disputants and would-be disputants on the other.