III WORLD CONFERENCE
OF THE WORLD MEDIATION FORUM
ITALIA 2000
From 27 September to 1 October 2000

Opening Speech
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Introduction

It is with great emotion that I introduce the reader to the "Acts" of a world congress, a statutory requirement of the World Mediation Forum, and the third such congress to take place in the history of Mediation.


Mediation and Mediators
  


For myself, who has seen the growth and development of the Acts, following them from their "conception", the embrionic Abstracts with five key words which in a sense constitute the DNA of the final product, participation, along with the authors, in this scientific and human experience, and their organisation, comprises a rich store of emotions and constitute the premises for a future of hope.

Metaphorically, the papers represent the pieces of an immense mosaic which is coloured by the peculiar styles of the authors and the salient features of their countries of origin.
Authors are often high-profile personalities, famous not only in their own places of study or businesses, court rooms or other work places where they carry out their profession, often full-time, in the field of mediation.

 
     
  In other cases the practice of mediation is inserted as a component of their profession, which could be that of manager, psychologist, lawyer, doctor, judge or teacher, of researcher or observer.

Mediators are, however, professionals oriented towards research, on the one hand into the causes which go together to activate a need for mediation processes, and on the other hand towards observation and the perfection of the techniques and methods which are directed towards helping the individual attain peaceful, serene and democratic co-existence at an individual, group level or among peoples.

Many experts assert that political, social and economic disintegration, as a consequence of violent and peremptory changes, induce a contrary force, that of cohesion, dialogue and seeking of the other.
Each person puts into the profession personal style and adaptation to the context in which he or she is operating keeping close to his or her professional ethics.
     

Mediation, an art which is both ancient and modern at the same time, is practised in different fields, ranging from penal to civil, social to environmental, with various techniques because, anchored in its most basic principles which are founded on the neutrality of the mediator, it allows space for creativity.

Mediation can come about directly within a characteristic setting, but it can also be practised indirectly where the presence of the mediator is always discrete and he or she does not offer solutions, does not judge, but listens and induces the listening process.

Human sciences have allowed us to infer that the process of mediation is also a process of learning and, therefore, today we attempt to "educate" children to the positive management of conflict.

So is mediation a practice? Is it a profession?

 
     
  The mediator, experts of various disciplines claim, should possess certain prerequisites. He or she should be empathetic and impartial; the mediator is not a therapist, nor is he or she a lawyer, consultant or judge, but a mediator, whose peculiar activity is that of facilitating the reconstruction of communication channels between conflicting parties, to accompany them in the positive management of that conflict through the recognition of the other as different from the self.

Not always and not necessarily is the mediator a physical being. So … who is he or she? What is he or she like? What does he or she do?

These "Acts", which I have followed since their conception, which I have nursed since their birth, which, as delegate of the World Mediation Forum for the organisation of the III Congress, I have read and nurtured, contain all the answers and know no boundaries: they come from all four corners of the world and are aimed at all readers and, in particular, to those who are able to find new interests, to be stimulated and to find opportunities for exchange and personal enrichment.

Savina Pinna

 
 
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