• The Mandarin term “社区调解中心” is a paraphrase of the English term “Community Mediation Centre”.
• In 1998, the Ministry of Law set up the first Community Mediation Centre in Marine Parade.
• The following year, a second centre was established in Ang Mo Kio.
• Community Mediation Centres were set up as the authorities noticed that residents would contact the police for minor disputes. As such disputes are often not under the jurisdiction of the police, the Government set up Community Mediation Centres in hopes of resolving them. In this way, the residents’ issues can be dealt with appropriately and police resources can be better utilised.
• The authorities hope that tense relationships among residents can be improved with professional mediation. The intervention by Community Mediation Centres enables residents to listen to a third party’s perspective and allows them to understand the root causes and solutions of the issues they face more clearly and rationally. 

From March to April, there was a slight increase in the number of cases handled by the Community Mediation Centres, most of which were related to noise disturbance. (Lianhe Zaobao, 8/5/2020)

• The majority of cases handled by Community Mediation Centres are related to noise disturbance.
• In 2020, many people worked from home as a result of the COVID-19 circuit breaker measures. As they spent more time at home, they were more likely to be disturbed by noise from their neighbours, leading to an increase in the number of residents who turned to Community Mediation Centres.