Mansour bin Zayed issues a decision to establish the Center for Mediation in Commercial Disputes at the Abu Dhabi Chamber

His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice President of the State, Deputy Prime Minister, and Head of the Presidential Court, in his capacity as Head of the Judicial Department – Abu Dhabi, issued Resolution No. 28 of 2026 regarding the establishment of the Mediation Center at the Abu Dhabi Chamber, in a step aimed at developing the commercial dispute settlement system and supporting the financial and business sector in the emirate.

Pursuant to the decision, a special center for mediation in commercial disputes will be established, financially and administratively affiliated with the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, provided that it is subject to the supervision and control of the Judicial Department. The center’s main headquarters will be within the Chamber’s headquarters, with the possibility of establishing other branches within the emirate to expand the scope of benefiting from its services.

The new center focuses on achieving a set of vital goals, most notably managing mediation processes between disputants through an integrated and advanced institutional framework that aims to resolve disputes in the most amicable and least expensive way, encouraging resort to mediation as a faster option to resolve disputes, and enhancing the principles of governance, integrity and justice in dispute resolution procedures by providing flexible and neutral mechanisms, while contributing to spreading the culture of mediation locally, regionally and internationally.

The decision granted the Center broad powers to settle disputes that arise between parties through mediation through judicial referral, contractual mediation, or alternative consensual means to resolve the dispute before the Center, in addition to providing the service of resolving local and international commercial disputes through friendly mediation, in accordance with the provisions of the law and rules applied by the Center or that are agreed upon between the parties to the dispute.

The decision stipulates that the settlement agreements reached through the center are approved by the supervising judge so that they gain the force of an executive document, allowing them to be implemented directly in accordance with the Federal Civil Procedure Law.