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Mediation
Services
Mediation is a confidential process in which a neutral
third-party works with disputants to reach a settlement
that is agreeable to all parties involved. The process is
designed to preserve relationships by helping disputants
work together to generate their own options. Mediation provides
citizens with a cost-effective and efficient alternative
to litigation, and simultaneously supports legal decentralization
and unburdens court systems' heavy caseloads.
Partners pioneered mediation in Central & Eastern Europe,
and since 1996 has established formal services in eight
of its Centers: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Kosovo,
Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. These services
resolve disputes on issues such as divorce, child custody,
division of assets, property, bankruptcy, breach of contract,
claims and leases, labor-management, community housing,
the environment, minor criminal cases and blood feuds. In
addition to settling cases, Partners' services also design
outreach campaigns to educate communities about the benefits
of mediation, train professionals to serve as mediators,
and cultivate relationships with social service agencies,
family and legal clinics, ombudsmen, businesses, schools,
psychologists, police, courts and other institutions that
refer disputes to the services. In this way, Partners' mediation
services are acculturated and integrated into the local
community, and develop into recognized and utilized resources.
In addition, Partners has introduced mediation to other
societal institutions, including schools and prisons. These
initiatives bring peaceful conflict resolution practices
to often over-looked segments of the population, e.g. youth
and felons, and work to prevent isolated disputes from escalating
into more widespread violence.
Highlights of Partners' accomplishments in mediation include:
- Partners-Argentina mediated an agreement among citizens,
environmental groups and government officials in the Province
of Misiones in response to a dispute on the preservation
of an endangered species of trees.
- Partners-Bulgaria created a six-part television series
in cooperation with Bulgarian National Television entitled
"I Win, You Win." The show emphasizes the advantages of
mediation processes over court battles, and depicts the
application of mediation to instances of everyday conflict,
such as colliding with a neighbor in an apartment stairwell.
The Center has also introduced mediation to Bulgarian
prisons, and trained the mediators who resolved the 2000
Balkan Airlines strike.
- Partners-Czech mediated a case between the Cepi municipal
government and a local entrepreneur over the construction
of a new factory potentially damaging to the environment.
The mediation sessions yielded a mutually acceptable agreement
under which the entrepreneur will abide by strict environmental
regulations that minimize community pollution. Annually,
P-Czech maintains an 85% settlement rate.
- Partners-Hungary resolved a dispute between a waste
management company and a citizens' environmental group
in Dorog, Hungary.
- In 2001, Partners and Partners-Kosovo founded a dispute
resolution service in the post-war province. The service
has mediated a variety of conflicts, including blood feuds,
property, neighborhood, family and child custody disputes.
- Partners-Poland launched in 2002 its family mediation
service and already receives an average of 15 cases per
month, on issues including divorce, child custody, substance
abuse, and juvenile crime. The Center also developed a
peer mediation service in the Wallenberg Primary School,
the only school in Warsaw attended by both abled and disabled
students; through the program, students resolved issues
ranging from schoolyard fights to disputes over the allocation
of money collected for stray animals.
- Partners-Slovakia has initiated peer mediation programs
in over 40 schools throughout the country, including those
with a large population of minority students, and has
gathered its lessons learned in a recent handbook on school-based
conflict resolution.
In-depth Examples of Partners' Impact through Mediation
Services:
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