02-02-2007

Throughout Europe, many cities and neighbourhoods are facing deteriorating relations of living together among their population, either in public or private areas, resulting in a multitude of conflicts – for example between generations or among cultural and ethnic groups. Mediation is an accepted practice in many fields of conflict.

Nowadays, there is a lot of experience with neighbourhood mediation, penal, social, local and intercultural mediation, mediation in schools, family mediation, etc. These forms of alternative dispute resolution have proved their efficiency in several countries. In most cases, however, several of the fields of mediation overlap in the same conflict.

“A 14 year old youngster experiences a difficult period at school. At the same time, his or her parents are going through a crisis resulting in domestic violence at home. This teenager is likely to adopt an attitude putting him at risk of juvenile delinquency, such as theft and verbal violence towards neighbours of his residential building. A police pursuit might additionally have been taken against him…”

Mediation at school, or occurring in the family, neighbourhood or social sphere could possibly be applied to this case, but if each aspect is treated individually, there is a high risk of wasting energy without results. Specialised local mediation centres can refer each specific case to make sure the people involved enter the right mediation trajectory.

Apart from the establishment of local mediation centres, FESU wants to start up a network of all organisations and experts that are convinced of the key role that mediation should play in urban safety policies. This network should serve as a platform of reflection and sharing of knowledge to the different actors of mediation: elected representatives, professionals, decision makers etc. On the FESU mediation web space, interested parties can find more information on the network on local mediation (see link below).