Centre for Social Work as the Guardianship in Procedure of Family Mediation

Abstract

In 2005, the Family Law of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina reformed the institute for thereconciliation of spouses by introducing a mediation institute as a mandatory condition for initiating adivorce procedure. According to the provisions of the Family Law of the Federation of Bosnia andHerzegovina, the guardianship authority is only one in a wide range of authorized legal and naturalpersons in the family mediation procedure. If the attempt to reconcile the spouses does not succeed, therole of the natural or legal person authorized to mediate is to mediate in reaching an agreement on theachieving of parental responsibility about their underage children, the child maintenance, the conditionsand the manner of maintaining personal relationships and direct contacts of the child with a parent whodoes not have parental responsibility, and supporting a spouse. In case the spouses do not reach anagreement or the same is not in the child’s interest (if another legal entity or a physical person in theFBiH has been a mediator), the guardianship authority can, on an official duty or at the request of anauthorized person, temporarily, until the dissolution of the divorce proceedings, decide on these issues.A survey conducted in the centers for social work in the area of the Tuzla Canton in May 2016 aimedto examine the attitudes/perceptions of professional workers in the centers for social work about therole of the Center for Social Work as a guardianship body in the family meditation procedure.

Keywords

• center for social work
• guardianship body
• social worker
• mediation
• family mediation