Gina Barbieri is a practising attorney who started her career in the area of human rights and employment law and now specializes in conflict resolution. Passionate about mediation and the role of alternative dispute resolution in contemporary South Africa, Gina co-founded and is currently the Executive Director of the African Initiative for Mediation (AIM), a public benefit organisation focusing on promoting mediation as an alternative form of dispute resolution (www.mediate.org.za). Gina is also a member of the Steering Committee of the African Mediation Association (AFMA) founded in response to a growing interest throughout the world in the application of consensual and non-confrontational means of dispute resolution. She sits on an international reference group convened by the World Bank/IFC’s independent dispute resolution arm, the Complaints Advisory Ombudsman (CAO), and currently consults to the CAO on its African Outreach Programme.