Reporting on Conflict | Media Watch BlogPeacemakers Trust posts news, reports or announcements of interest to people studying or working in the field of dispute resolution, conflict transformation and peacebuilding. Inclusion of an item on the media watch blog does not imply endorsement or agreement of Peacemakers Trust with views expressed by authors of posted items.
Sarah Shahi USA Networks has announced their new programming lineup and Facing Kate, the new drama featuring Sarah Shahi that has family mediation as its center, is set to air in January. The series focuses on the world of lawyers who, like Kate, resign from practicing law and simply mediate clients’ disagreements.
(...more)On August 16, after 19 days of blockades and hunger strikes in urban Potosí and surrounding areas, Potosí civic leaders and MAS officials reached an agreement to end protests. After protest leaders and Bolivian government officials met in Sucre, the Morales administration agreed to begin work on the demonstrators’ six demands.[i] While this agreement marks a positive step forward, and ended blockades, both sides continue to blame each other for poor handling of the conflict.
(...more)National Public Radio featured a story this week about growing opposition to renewal energy facilities, particularly wind power. The wind advocates were asked how they might overcome local opposition — dubbed the NIMBY syndrome — in the future. The spokesperson said, “We’ve got to get in there earlier and educate people.” Wrong! How arrogant! You think people are opposed because they don’t understand? No, they’re opposed because the “costs” and “impacts” ON THEM are likely to outweigh the likely benefits TO THEM. The only way to overcome the NIMBY syndrome, regardless of the type of facility involved, is to make sure that the overwhelming majority of people in the area believe that the benefits TO THEM will outweigh the costs and impacts THEY are likely to experience if a facility is built.
(...more)LA PAZ — A general strike that paralyzed the Andean mining city of Potosi for 19 days, stranding scores of foreign tourists, ended after a deal was reached with the government, protest leaders said…
Over the past three days, protest leaders and government officials negotiated a six-point agreement in Sucre, 150 kilometers (94 miles) to the north of Potosi city. The agreement was approved Monday by strike leaders, ending the protest.
(...more)Thailand needs open dialogue between all stakeholders to solve the country’s “phenomenal” political polarisation, conflict resolution facilitator Adam Kahane says.
(...more)Gina Brown and Jean Sternlight have announced the winner of the 2010 Boskey Essay contest: Flora Go, a student at Harvard Law School, for her essay, “Mediation as Practiced in Criminal Law: The Present, the Pitfalls, and the Potential.”
(...more)How do negotiators engage terrorist organisations in talks, and what do they talk about? Jonathan Powell lifts the lid on speaking with enemy…
(...more)Contrary to largely gloomy cultural perceptions, growing old brings some benefits, notably emotional and cognitive stability. Laura Carstensen, a Stanford social psychologist, calls this the “well-being paradox.” Although adults older than 65 face challenges to body and brain, the 70s and 80s also bring an abundance of social and emotional knowledge, qualities scientists are beginning to define as wisdom. As Carstensen and another social psychologist, Fredda Blanchard-Fields of the Georgia Institute of Technology, have shown, adults gain a toolbox of social and emotional instincts as they age. According to Blanchard-Fields, seniors acquire a feel, an enhanced sense of knowing right from wrong, and therefore a way to make sound life decisions.
(...more)Wednesday, 6 July 2011 to Friday, 8 July 2011
5th ASIA PACIFIC MEDIATION FORUM (APMF) EVENT
ASIA PACIFIC MEDIATION LEADERSHIP SUMMIT:
‘FROM TALK TO ACTION’.
BANGKOK, JULY 6, 7 & 8, 2011
The first ever Asia Pacific Mediation Leadership Summit will be hosted by the Asia Pacific Mediation Forum (APMF) in Bangkok, 6, 7 and 8 July, 2011, in collaboration with key organisations in Bangkok and in other countries in the Asia Pacific region. Please note that the date has been moved because of the political unrest in Thailand. The APMF proposes to act as the umbrella organisation for this and future leadership meetings, as it has representatives from a wide range of countries and organisations in the Asia Pacific region on its Steering Committee and has conducted four successful conferences in the region (Australia, Singapore, Fiji & Malaysia) since 2001. One of our APMF Executive members, Martine Miller, has agreed to convene the Summit with support from the other Executive members.
We seek to collaborate with a range of organisations in this and future initiatives and invite relevant organisations in the region to contact us to express interest. Please note that this activity is not-for-profit.
Purpose: To bring together experienced conflict resolution and mediation practitioners, researchers, educators, trainers and policy makers from different cultural, organisational and professional backgrounds who are culturally fluent, creative and innovative, want to contribute (and build on) their knowledge and expertise, and are prepared to play a leadership role in transforming the way that conflicts are handled in the Asia Pacific region.
Aims:
1. To identify challenges, build capacity and promote collaboration, cross-cultural awareness and understanding regarding approaches to conflict and mediation in the region.
2. To mine the collective depths of the participants’ knowledge and experience and strategise for change initiatives that can expand the field and promote peace in the region.
3. To produce concrete, written outcomes from focused, facilitated roundtable discussions that can be implemented by organisations, and which have real potential to impact on and transform the mediation and conflict resolution fields in culturally fluent ways.
Draft format for the Summit
1. We propose to identify key themes, and sub-themes, in collaboration with the participants, in advance of the meeting via an interactive internet site and/or an on-line survey.
2. We will identify and invite an inspirational keynote speaker for each of the chosen themes to identify key issues and their relevance to the Asia Pacific region in order to stimulate round-table discussions.
3. We will identify and invite expert facilitators and recorders who can focus and inspire a number of round table discussions over three days; each table will focus on a different topic and identify specific and achievable outcomes.
4. We will invite participants to forward a 2000 word paper prior to the Summit which will be distributed on a CD to all participants. Authors will be able to choose to have their paper peer reviewed for possible inclusion in an edited book after the Summit.
The themes will be developed with the participants on-line prior to the conference via a special interactive website – they need to be cross-cutting and of interest to people from all fields of practice in the Asia-Pacific region.
We would be pleased to receive an indication of interest from organisations who wish to collaborate with us in this event and from individual mediators who are interested in attending the Summit. We will be posting information onto the APMF website (see address below) and circulating more specific details about the Summit by email in the next few weeks.
Please circulate this information to others in your network.
Asia Pacific Mediation Forum: http://www.apmec.unisa.edu.au
Harvard’s Laurence Tribe is currently serving as a senior counselor in the Justice Department on access to justice. Last week he addressed the nation’s state chief justices at their annual conference, where he gave an impassioned plea to reform “a system in which the deck is stacked in favor of those who already have the most: in favor of the wealthy and against those already disadvantaged or victimized by the more powerful.” Tribe asked the judges to make pro bono and pro se representation easier and to enforce the rights of juveniles and indigents to counsel. In addition, he bemoaned the delays and high costs that have become endemic in American courts, and tied that problem to the growth of private dispute resolution, with a decidedly sceptical eye:
(...more)An article in the International Herald Tribune and New York Times for today caught my attention and my initial negative reaction:
Outsourcing to India Draws Western Lawyers by Heather Timmons…
This looks, at first sight, like another example of industries relocating, the race to the bottom, the saving of costs at one end – though not necessarily the passing on of the savings (though that conclusion is unfair, given the recognition by law firms that a lot of the work in case preparation does not need the hefty cost of a lawyer, associate, or paralegal).
But from a different perspective, how different is this from the ADR movement of the last 30 years?
(...more)How do you negotiate with Wal-Mart? With industry for a cleaner environment? With an intimidating boss over an ethical issue? With the medical system for better healthcare for your family? With a difficult but important client? When you attend this event you will learn skills, habits and strategies to provide a solid foundation for your negotiations. Through stories and the use of case studies, Peter will uncover what giants care about and how to negotiate effectively even in the most difficult circumstances.
November 19, 2010 / Fee: $195, Early Bird Rate: : $175 before October 15, 2010
JIBC -715 McBride Boulevard, New Westminster BC
www.jibc.ca/conres
Canadians are increasingly turning to alternative dispute resolution because of the high cost of taking a civil or family dispute to trial, say lawyers and professional mediators.
(...more)Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) are two sides of the same coin. ADR is not a replacement to litigation but only an alternative and a supplement. Both are aimed at the determination of disputes and resolution of conflicts in society. But some disputing parties, especially those involved in commercial matters, appear to have a preference for ADR because its resolution mechanism is faster and time saving. Asst. Law Editor Francis Famoroti discusses the benefits of the ADR and the options available to the aggrieved litigants having cases in the courts.
(...more)Sooner or later, every negotiator faces threats at the bargaining table. How should you respond when the other side threatens to walk away, file a lawsuit, or damage your reputation?
(...more)PHNOM PENH – Cambodian rights groups and farmers urged foreign donors on Tuesday to press the government to suspend land concessions to investors and use fair and lawful means to settle disputes.
(...more)For many years, social scientists have attempted to explain human cultural differences by studying behavioral or attitudinal traits. But recent advances in neuroimaging techniques are now allowing researchers to look directly into the brain and to identify these differences at a cellular level….[podcast]
(...more)Maryland’s Mediation and Conflict Resolution Office has made three very interesting conflict resolution-related videos available on their website… (go to videos)
Thailand’s red shirt protesters on Thursday asked the European Union to send monitors to prevent a violent crackdown, one day after they clashed again with soldiers. Nobel peace laureate and East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta, whose country sought foreign aid against political violence, offers advice on outside mediators.
(...more)I recently stumbled upon this animated 3D mediation demonstration. A conflict has developed between members of a team working in an online course. Two of the students come in to meet the professor who will mediate.
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