Conflict Mediation: Exercise of Citizenship and Prevention

Tania Almeida
Master's student in Conflict Mediation. Consultant, researcher and teacher in Conflict Mediation and Dialogue Facilitation. She presides over MEDIARE – Dialogues and Decision-making Processes. Doctor. Postgraduate in Neuropsychiatry, Psychoanalysis, Sociology and Business Management.

 

The third millennium brings challenges hitherto unknown. Man arrives at the third millennium specially equipped for belligerence and thirsty for mechanisms that guarantee social peace. He avidly competes in some fields of coexistence and finds in collaboration the only way to guarantee survival. He has a growing quest for freedom and takes good care of the necessary interdependence between people, countries, markets.

To deal with these and other contrasts, he identifies the greater good in peaceful coexistence. It is she who can enable the coexistence of competition and collaboration, cultural differences, ideals and values. It is she who can enable a present and generate a future protected from violence as a way of interacting with the other and managing so many contrasts.

Composing differences – between people, institutions, countries and cultures – in order to keep them legitimate and to find a solution, or way of dealing, that meets everyone's needs is what can guarantee peaceful coexistence. Common markets, business mergers, cooperative actions around the environment, project partnerships are examples of this.

Conflict Mediation appears, in this scenario, keeping special coherence with all these needs – the composition of differences with mutually beneficial solutions. Initially thought to be a self-compositional method of conflict resolution - in which the people themselves are the authors of the decision -, it transcended this purpose.

Authors of the solutions of their disputes, people become more committed to their fulfillment. They feel responsible for what they decide, unlike when solutions are imposed by others. By creating solutions that suit everyone, they can maintain their social relationship because there won't be a winner and a loser like when differences are resolved through adversarial methods – when one wins and the other loses.

Conflict Mediation is a self-compositional method also dedicated to the restoration of social relationships, which differentiates it from other self-compositional methods such as negotiation and conciliation. It is a process of dialogue that includes the deconstruction of the conflict, the restoration of the social relationship and the construction of solutions in co-authorship. Its operationalization was conceived in this way because it is believed that co-authorship, and the resulting co-responsibility necessary for the fulfillment of the agreement, can only come from those who were able to deal with the existing conflict between them.

Restoring the social relationship implies resuming a quality of communication and coexistence based on mutual respect, in order to guarantee the sustainability of the dialogue and not bring costs to third parties who participate in that coexistence - children, employees, partners, neighbors, partners of projects or work. It is worked on in parallel with the identification of mutually beneficial solutions. These are the citizen objectives of Mediation: helping people to build mutually beneficial solutions, in co-authorship and with commitment, preserving the social relationship between them.

Mediation takes care of conflicts, the construction of agreements and the social relationship between the conflicting parties. Due to these characteristics, it has been elected the instrument for resolving conflicts of excellence for relationships continued over time – neighborly, kinship, work, partnership relationships.

A number of secondary benefits have been observed as a result of their exercise. Mediation participants learn a peaceful and collaborative way to negotiate differences. Citizens better equipped for a productive dialogue - one that privileges mutual listening to counter-argument, the construction of consensus to the debate, understanding to the dispute - can act preventively when they are part of future controversies, as well as they can act as third parties, facilitating dialogues. among others.

It is citizens doing their part in the sum of efforts that must be multifocal and multidisciplinary when the direction is social pacification. It is citizens taking responsibility for their actions, devising more satisfactory solutions to the extent that they are better aware of their priorities and needs.

Used to moving from direct negotiation to judicial resolution, without resorting to intermediary resources in the search for resolving disputes, man has judicialized and criminalized actions of daily coexistence. He needs to be invited again to dialogue, the primary resource for peaceful coexistence and mutual respect.

Some of us manage the added responsibility of acting as the first approach to people in conflict. Lawyers, police officers, defenders, therapists, religious, among others, are the first to be sought out, or indicated, to help people in their differences. It is essential that we are aware of the importance of this first approach. It can help to lead the event of disagreement with a greater or lesser degree of adversariality, with a greater or lesser degree of violence.

Only the global and multifactorial vision of human coexistence – systemic understanding – can help us to perceive the legal, social, emotional and other aspects of conflicts. Only it and our constant improvement in the search for other possibilities to deal with controversies can make us citizens co-responsible for a more comprehensive approach to human issues. No knowledge, in particular, can handle conflicts in their magnitude. It is necessary to visit other areas of knowledge if we want to deal with human disagreement more comprehensively.

It is necessary to revisit our beliefs, at a time when social dynamics are becoming more horizontal, giving more responsibilities to each citizen instead of the almost exclusive responsibility of the State in the task of resolving disputes. It is worth examining whether our methods of conflict resolution, whether our professional, social and educational approaches, whether the values ​​we practice in these methods and approaches are consistent with the culture of peace.

New competences, new skills, new knowledge are needed by everyone to deal with this request. Each citizen, co-author of the scenario of the disagreement or responsible for its management, can also be co-author of its solution. It is part of the social competence of the man of this millennium the ability to deal with differences and disagreements in a peaceful way, involving himself in the solution. It is part of the social competence of this millennium, subjects more focused on solidarity than confrontation.

Peaceful coexistence, expansion of access to justice, prevention of violence and social inclusion, integral to the concept of Integral Security, are elements taken care of by Conflict Mediation. Political practices and pedagogical practices, global actions and local actions, public actions and private actions, collective actions and individual actions are necessary for the construction of a culture focused on social pacification. Let's do our part.