Atellier 3
Tools for the creation of the European mediator
Organized by the University of Cagliari with the participation of Prof. Carlo Pilia, from Prof. Françoise Scafidi, Dr Silvia Lilliu, Dr Francesco Usala and CNAM representative Sylvie Rouxel
The first part was an introduction to the theme of Mediation, with the aim of identifying a training plan for the European Ombudsman. In this sense, Community Directive 52/2008 / EC introduces the legal status of the European mediator, in particular through codes of conduct.
Art. 4, which is dedicated to the "quality of mediation", is an example: "Member States shall encourage, by any means they deem appropriate, the development of voluntary codes of good conduct and adherence to these codes , by mediators and bodies providing mediation services, as well as other effective quality control mechanisms relating to the provision of mediation services. Member States shall promote the initial and in-service training of mediators in order to ensure that that the mediation be carried out with efficiency, competence and impartiality with regard to the parties. ”He presented a training and retraining plan.
However, the training plan must also include linguistic and cultural competences: therefore, the European mediator must have knowledge which goes beyond his own language, nation and culture. He will have to interact with different countries and therefore his knowledge will have to be intercultural.
The third part was then devoted to family mediation in view of the specific skills of the mediator. Indeed, in the case of the complexity of family conflicts, the mediator, in addition to generic skills, needs specific training to be able to manage conflicts within the family, of a social, cultural or religious nature which are today. 'hui the mirror of our society.
Finally, we reflected on the technological skills, essential today for distance mediation. Online knowledge is therefore necessary, both theoretical and practical. Technology is now part of our daily lives, and it is therefore essential to create an online platform, in the wake of the ODR platform.
About fifty people participated in our workshop, mainly university students of civil law, who want to learn mediation as a means of conflict resolution.
The students showed a theoretical approach reflecting the university environment, and especially the legal training offered to them.
The comparison, the exchange of ideas, the interaction with an international world, the study of new and different techniques, constitute a new didactic approach with which we try to train the new professionals of tomorrow.
The debate took place through the reading of the questions asked by the students, among which stand out:
- Why turn to Mediation?
- Is technology an essential tool?
- Are there research grants or internships abroad?
- Is it possible to integrate practical training? besides being theoretical?
These are questions linked above all to the practical aspect of training and to interculturality aimed at by the LIMEDIAT project.
Throughout the debate, therefore, there appeared the desire to open up to an intercultural system, to ensure that the culture of mediation was created, sometimes, often absent from the Italian system, as was the awareness of linguistic and technological skills. , the necessary but not sufficient means to train a European Ombudsman and finally the need to create a balance between practice and theory. This last point is obviously the most interesting aspect to take into consideration for the creation of the European Ombudsman.