1. Mediation, violence and conflict
Messages
Discover the new cohesion policy : it opens a wide range of public and private investment opportunities.
Public-private partnerships: working together for more competitiveness, innovation and sustained regional growth.
EU Cohesion policy means achieving more together – Structural Funds investments make enlargement a success for all.
Investing in Europe: Regions and cities deliver the Growth and Jobs agenda.
Brendan McAllister
Mediation Northern Ireland

2. Values within mediation
Non-violence
to promote or defend justice by serving truth, with compassion.
Independence
from state control or sectional interests.
Justice
served by building and maintaining right relationships.
Mediation should be more than mere technique; more than professionalism. It should have an underlying philosophy in relation to violence and conflict. Mediation Northern Ireland’s approach to mediation has evolved from within a philosophy of peace. Our philosophy is expressed in the corporate values of our organisation.

3. A mediator is a neutral third party
The idea of mediation
A mediator is a neutral third party
Mediation is about conflict resolution
It is about inter-personal conflict
It is needs-based
Realities of the Northern Ireland context
A cross-generational conflict
Change happens incrementally
Intervention must be systemic
Much of the conflict is ‘identity-based’
Indigenous practitioners can only be impartial
Image: Security gates on the peace line at Lanark Way, Belfast. Source: cain.ulst.ac.uk/photographs
Developing the practice of mediation for peacebuilders in Northern Ireland involved a critique of the abstract idea of mediation, taking some of its orthodoxies and applying them to realities of the Northern Ireland context.

4. A concept of mediation - 1
Definition:
mediation involves an impartial outsider helping people affected by conflict or division to engage each other to effect positive change to their situation.
Functions:
assisting communication
improving understandings
supporting creative thinking
exploring accommodations
facilitating agreements.
Applying the abstract, universal idea of mediation to such realities, enabled us to fashion a concept of mediation which fitted our context.
Image: Dialogue

5. A concept of mediation - 2
Three civic tasks:
1. Conflict intervention
2. Building good relations
3. Promoting social partnership
Dimensions of societal reconciliation:
Agreed law and order
Economic development
Social progress

6. Methodology Conciliation: working with each side separately
Facilitation:
mediation without fanfare;
relatively superficial.
Mediation:
Inter-personal
Systemic
Inter-group

7. Mediation Northern Ireland strategy
Practice:
Casework: intervention in specific, short-lived disputes
Projects: longer term, systemic change
Training: developing skills
Education: facilitating learning
The importance of being ‘practice-led’; demonstrating what would otherwise be abstract and theoretical; St.Augustine: ‘it is solved by walking’.

8. Mediation Northern Ireland sectors of work
Beyond
Northern
Ireland
Neighbourhoods
and Communities
Policing
Local Governance
Housing

9. Mediation Northern Ireland - 1
EU support to
Mediation Northern Ireland - 1
A Place Apart: the Mediation Development Centre
The Monitors’ Project: civic peacekeeping on the streets
Supporting Learning: travel and conferences (Norway; Helsinki; Cyprus; Mediation U.K. conference in England; World Mediation Forum in Geneva; Summer School in U.S.A. - 4 people; Nordic Mediation Conference, Helsinki – 3 people; Global Migration Forum in Geneva)

10. Mediation Northern Ireland - 2
EU support to
Mediation Northern Ireland - 2
The Civic Leadership Project:
Boston- on Policing (2003)
Leuven- on Restorative Justice in Europe (2005)
Amsterdam- on Migration and Diversity (2005)
Newry- on The Challenge of Change Convention (2006)

11. EU support to Mediation Northern Ireland - 3
European Mediation Conference, Belfast,
8 -10 April 2008
Building Relationships and Getting Results.
Objectives:
To reflect on the task of building peace for Europe and the world.
To explore developments in the practice of mediation.
To raise awareness of mediation among policy makers, opinion formers and the general public.
To strengthen relationships in the European mediation field.
To make a record of the conference widely available.

12. EU support to M ediation Northern Ireland – 4
The Macedonian Centre for International Cooperation
Strategic Leadership seminars (2000 – 2001)
Staff training in mediation and peacebuilding (2000 – 2001)
MCIC Study Visits to Belfast:
Senior Journalists (2004)
Church and Faith leaders (2006)
Address by MCIC Director, Community Relations Conference, Belfast (2007)
MNI Director at U.N./O.S.C.E. mediation seminar, Geneva (2007)

13. Thank you for your attention Questions?