THE ART OF MEDIATION

by Hugh J Schonfield

A major objective of the Mondcivitan Republic is to provide an impartial agency for mediating in international disputes and conflicts. To achieve this wo shall need a number of Mondcivitans with the right qualifications. But all Mondcivitans are expected to cultivate an impartial attitude and outlook, and it may be useful therefore to consider some aspects of the art of mediation.

The need for mediation arises normally where there is so great a conflict of interests and so much ,mistrust that the parties to a dispute cannot by themselves find a way to resolve their differences. Convictions on both sides may be so strong that initially they will not desire mediation. Or one side may be in such a dominant position that it will hold that it has nothing to gain by accepting mediation.

The first problem to be overcome, therefore, is that of creating confidence in the mediator. Obviously, he must in no sense be an interested party. Neither must he have indicated in any way that his sympathies lie more with one side than the other. There must be no taint of any prejudgement of the issue. Here the difficulties for the mediator are very great. Individuals customarily react to circumstances which come to their attention, accepting much too readily and on inexact evidence that one of the parties is more at fault than the other. Especially is this so where the status or character of one party is instinctively or sentimentally disliked. For example, if one party happened to be a military dictatorship that could cause an emotional prejudice.

The mediator must be trained to acquire the attributes of a rarified judicial detachment, and his imperviousness to the influence of appearances must be evident to the protagonists.

This does not mean, however, that he has to be wholly insensitive. To the contrary, he has to be very quick to discern where there is exaggeration and falsification. He must sift and probe to acquaint himself with all relevant facts and factors; but not so as to pass judgment, because the parties are not on trial, but rather to isolate those elements which appear to suggest possibilities of agreement and compromise.

In this respect he has to be several jumps ahead of the dis­putants, capable of seizing and building upon some minor or neglected circumstance which could serve as a bridge between opposing viewpoints. He must strive to lead each side step by step away from their chiefly canvassed and more rigid positions into areas less heated and inflexible which they had not detected or stressed. It should be able to come hone to the parties concerned, to their great surprise, that they had things in common which they had not before contemplated.

Moreover, the mediator must exude human fellowship and good­will, not flamboyantly or hypocritically, but as evidently finding and taking delight in the company he is in. He will be dealing with people who arc tense, angry and suspicious, and to carry out his task successfully wi11 have to lower the temperature. He must not, therefore, be argumentative or pontifical; for while commonsense may in the end prevail the exercise of pure reason will not be the single cause of it.

Finally, when a solution is reached through the mediator's skill The reconciled parties must be left with the impression that it was they themselves with very little assistance from the mediator who devised and formulated the terms of settlement.

Reprinted from 'The Mondcivitan' Spring 1972.