BASESwiki: A Dispute Resolution Community

For those of you familiar with Wikipedia, a new wiki web site, this one for the Dispute Resolution Community, is up and running. For those unfamiliar with wikis, a wiki is a collaborative Web site oriented to providing knowledge in some domain. Anyone can enter information, or change or comment on anyone else's contributions. Some wikis (such as BASESwiki) serve specific purposes in which cases material considered “off topic” is removed.

BASESwiki is an initiative sponsored by the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative on Business and Human Rights, in cooperation with the Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School and with the support of the International Bar Association, the Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman of the World Bank Group, the JAMS Foundation and the Open Society Institute.

BASISwiki was established to develop a self-sustaining online community where stakeholders can share information, analysis, and learning about business-to-society dispute resolution. It is built on wiki-style contributions from a virtual network of individuals, companies, organizations, and groups who share an interest in dispute resolution.

A growing body of evidence demonstrates that non-judicial mechanisms provide a vital means to address grievances between companies and the communities or individuals they impact. Yet stakeholders from all sides report that the lack of readily available information about these mechanisms creates a fundamental barrier to accessing them and to understanding how to improve their performance.

BASESwiki seeks to address this gap by exploring different models for non-judicial mechanisms, stakeholders’ experiences of them, and what makes them more or less effective in practice. It is a forum where anyone can share, access and discuss information about non-judicial mechanisms and the resources available around the world to help resolve disputes. It is a resource for all stakeholders - companies, NGOs, mediators, lawyers, academics and government officials.

BASESwiki covers mechanisms based in companies, industry associations, multi-stakeholder initiatives, government agencies, national, multilateral and international institutions. It is now driven by a set of tools including:

• a fully searchable database of Mechanisms, Resources, Case Stories, and Country Profiles
• A seek assistance tool to connect users with experienced contributors; and
• Social media integration (Discussion Boards, Event Calendar, User Profiles, Twitter, RSS)

For more information, visit the BASES website.

For inquiries, contact Kyle Stone, Project Leader at Kyle_Stone@hks.harvard.edu or +1 (617) 495-1446.