Sri Lanka Community Mediation Boards: What It Looks Like to Have Successful, Fair, and Accessible Justice

At its core, the system is hybrid and homegrown. Hybrid because it combines state oversight with community delivery: the Ministry of Justice and the Mediation Boards Commission provide the legal framework and administration, while local volunteers, trained but unpaid, do the hands-on work of mediating. And it is homegrown because it builds on Sri Lanka’s long traditions of resolving disputes at the village level, bringing justice to people right where they are, reshaped into a modern statutory mechanism in the late 1980s.

Today, over 329 Community Mediation Boards operate across the country, staffed by some 8,500 volunteers. Together, they hear disputes ranging from neighbor disputes, land-related disputes, financial and loan disputes, domestic and family disputes, and minor criminal offences.

The Numbers: Working through Hundreds of Thousands of Cases Annually

The system’s scale is striking. In 2023 alone, for a country with a total population of 23 million, the Community Mediation Boards received over 211,000 new disputes and carried forward another 35,000 from the previous year—close to a quarter of a million cases in total.

Of those, around 98,000 disputes went through mediation, and 67,751 ended in a signed settlement, a success rate of almost 69%. When you include cases withdrawn, refused, or otherwise finalized, more than four out of five matters were cleared within the year.

Settlements that Stick

Effective, people-centered mediation isn’t only about numbers. It’s about outcomes that feel fairer and stick better. Interest-based solutions, reached through dialogue and negotiation, often create settlements that both sides can live with.

In recognition of its successes, the government has expanded the system. Specialized boards with parallel mandates have been established to provide expert coverage of land disputes and financial disputes.

Justice on the Cheap

Accessibility is the hallmark of the CMBs. For disputants, filing costs only five Sri Lankan rupees, essentially a token fee at less than USD 0.02. There are no lawyers’ fees, and incidental costs are negligible, rarely more than 400 Sri Lankan rupees (LKR), or about USD 1.35 per case.

For the state, too, this is justice on a shoestring. Mediators are volunteers; the only allowance they receive is LKR 500 (less than USD 2) per sitting for travel. The entire national system runs on about LKR 1.14 billion (USD 3.8 million) a year. On average, that’s LKR 5,582 (USD 19) per dispute handled, or LKR 16,826 (USD 57) per dispute successfully settled.

By comparison with formal courts—which involve courtrooms, facilities, lawyers, judges, clerks, and appeals—not to mention the police and others—the savings are immense for both families and the state.

A Pressure Valve for the Courts

Sri Lanka’s courts are heavily backlogged, with cases often dragging for years. Mediation boards offer critical relief. By law, they must dispose of civil disputes within 60 days and certain minor criminal matters within 30 days. Monitoring shows the average case is wrapped up in just 37 days.

This speed, combined with sheer volume, makes the system a pressure valve for the formal judiciary, freeing judges’ time for more serious or complex matters.

What Do Users Think?

The strongest endorsement comes from the people who use the system.

Surveys in 2024 found that 83% of disputants were satisfied with their outcomes, and nearly nine out of ten would recommend the Community Mediation Boards to others. These high satisfaction rates have remained steady for years, across ethnic, gender, and regional divides. In Tamil- and Muslim-majority areas, people emphasize not only fairness but also the dignity of being able to speak and be heard in their own language.

Disputants also highlight convenience. Hearings are often held in schools, temples, or community halls, sometimes on weekends to avoid lost wages.

A Model Worth Watching

For over three decades, Sri Lanka’s Community Mediation Boards have quietly delivered people-centered justice at scale: fast, inexpensive, widely trusted, and deeply embedded in communities. It is not a flawless system, and improvements are still needed in facilities, awareness, and training. But as a functioning nationwide alternative to clogged courts, it stands as one of the country’s quiet success stories.

In a world where legal systems everywhere are buckling under delay and cost, Sri Lanka’s model of hybrid, community-led mediation shows that accessible, affordable, and effective people-centered justice is possible—not someday, but today.