Feb. 13-17th, 2018, MRU's Laboratory of Mediation and Sustainable Conflict Resolution hosted a group of lecturers from 6 European universities for training specialising in mediation.
The training was organised in conjunction with the ERASMUS+ Strategic Partnership project and coordinated by Latvia's Turiba University.
The MRU Laboratory of Mediation and Sustainable Conflict Resolution is a leader in Mediation Training and research in Lithuania. The LAB is constantly involved in international activities fostering mediation and joining mediators for common activities and experience-sharing.
During the autumn of 2016, Turiba University along with 5 partner universities launched the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership project, which will develop an online tool to help students acquire skills and knowledge in the management of international mediation processes and dispute resolution.
Training of lecturers is part of many activities of this project.
Each partner University has mediation courses as part of their study programmes. Lecturers in each country use different methods and study materials. This training will not only improve knowledge and skills of the lecturers, but will also provide possibilities for experience exchange and networking.
There were 12 lecturers that took part in the training from: Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Italy, Czech Republic and Austria.
Lectures were given by experienced French mediator Jacques Salzer (Universities of Paris Dauphine and Paris Descartes), Director of Institute of Advanced Studies in Mediation and Negotiation (IHEMN) Laurence Baradat and PhD fellow at Riga Graduate School of Law and Copenhagen University's Aravamudhan Ulaganathan Ravindran.
Mediation is an out-of-court dispute resolution solution. The mediation process is led by a professional mediator and is a voluntary process. Disputants themselves agree whether and when to start the mediation process and resolve their dispute. Mediation can take place both in civil cases (for example, in family, work or commercial disputes, etc.), and in criminal cases (the perpetrator agreeing with the victim) and also in administrative matters.
Mediation in Latvia and in the whole of Europe is getting more and more popular.
Courts recommend that the parties of the dispute should go to the mediator to resolve their dispute peacefully. The disputants themselves may go to a mediator.
The project is being implemented by Turiba University in cooperation with the University of Genova (Italy), Mykolas Romeris University (Lithuania), the National and World Economy University (Bulgaria), the University of Graz (Austria) and the Prague University of Economics (Czech Republic).
The project is supported by the European Union's ERASMUS+ Strategic Partnership programme. Project Number: 2016-1-LV01-KA203-022660.
Project implementation period: September 1, 2016 until April 30, 2019.
Project website: mediation.turiba.lv
(photos by Agnė Tvaronavičienė)