EUROMEDIATION WORKING GROUP SUMMARY REPORT OF THE PIERREFITTE SEMINAR

Transcription

1 EUROMEDIATION WORKING GROUP SUMMARY REPORT OF THE PIERREFITTE SEMINAR Sven Engel European Forum for Urban Safety Dec 15, 2005 This report is on line:

2 P A R T I C I P A N T S Except for Liverpool, all partner cities including a representative from SUDC working group lead by Liège (Belgium) as well as the Urbact secretariat were represented at the Pierrefitte seminar. A list of participants in alphabetical order follows: 1 Christophe Bechet Mission Prévention Tranquillité Publique Angers 2 Yamina Bendahmane Project Manager, AFPAD Pierrefitte 3 Sylvie Dacaudin AFPAD Pierrefitte 4 Christel De Lutis Social Mediation, BRAVVO Brussels 5 Nathalie De Smet School Mediation, BRAVVO Brussels 6 Yasmine Dragui Médiation locale, BRAVVO Bruxelles 7 Sven Engel European Forum for Urban Safety Paris 8 Geoffrey François Project Manager Liège 9 Consolata Galleani Secteur de la famille Turin 10 Giovanni Ghibaudi Project Leader Turin 11 Catherine Jacquin CA AFPAD Pierrefitte 12 Elise Longe AFPAD Pierrefitte 13 Hélène Miramon AFPAD Pierrefitte 14 Nicola Niscemi AFPAD Pierrefitte 15 Teldja Quahiba AFPAD Pierrefitte 16 Laurent Rorpach AFPAD Pierrefitte 17 Aly Sassi Local Mediation, BRAVVO Brussels 18 Hibat Tabib Director, AFPAD Pierrefitte 19 Mathieu Verhagen Social Mediation, BRAVVO Brussels Further participants who enriched the debate for the first day were: 20 Jean-Pierre Bonnafé- Schmitt Boutiques de Droit (Law Shops) Lyon 21 Jean-Loup Drubigny URBACT Secretariat Paris 22 Jocelyne Roussel Association de soutien à la médiation et aux antennes juridiques (Association for the support of mediation and judicial liaison offices) Marseille 23 Marianne Yvon Droits d Urgence (Emergency Rights) Paris

3 I N T R O D U C T I O N The second seminar of the EuroMediation working group took place in the city of Pierrefitte, situated in the northern periphery of Paris, on December 2-3, 2005 and was preceeded by a one-day colloquium presenting Pierrefitte as the first City of Mediation in Europe (Ville-Médiation). The main objectives of the seminar were to look at more case studies mostly from France and learn from their experiences, to look into questions of training and financing and to further identify criteria for a common approach in mediation. C A S E S T U D I E S I. AFPAD Pierrefitte No presentation was made; see the case study already developed in the Urbact framework instead. II. ASMAJ Marseille presented my Mrs. Roussel The organization «Association de soutien à la médiation et aux antennes juridiques» (Association for the support of mediation and judicial field offices) works in Marseille (France) and the neighbouring cities of Aubagne and La Ciotat on access to the justice system and on mediation. It was founded on the initiative of the president of the Tribunal de Grande Instance. The older Access to justice programme is part of the larger prevention policy of the city, 21% of cases are oriented towards the justice system, and the programme is currently broadened to include social fundamental rights (housing, health, etc.). Within the more recently developed Mediation programme part, the city had signed a convention in 1991 with the state s attorney installing 15 liaison offices in the neighbourhoods ( antennes juridiques ). The teams are made up of a lawyer, a mediator and a social worker that work in proximity to residents (liaison offices installed on the ground floor of apartment buildings and similar). The approach is territorial in the sense of scattered offices across the urban space; it is bottom-up in the sense that the law is conceived as something that should be easily accessible and belonging to all. The work therefore includes a good deal of demystifying the justice system and deciphering legal jargon. The region Provence-Alpes-Côtes-d Azur (PACA) is financially supporting the project following a true political commitment to mediation. The approach further follows a general and inclusive concept of the person concerned (taking into consideration complex difficulties with social, personal, economic aspects etc.). The mixed teams allow for interventions of lawyers in other situations and enlarge peoples choices. Functioning in a way as recruitment centres for these 40 lawyers who are members of ASMAJ, the liaison offices also expose lawyers to a culture of mediation, involving around 20 volunteer mediators (mostly retired persons) and 3 social workers employed by ASMAJ. Of 2500 consultations, 10% gave way to a mediation process.

4 The cases that are treated include a few emergencies, family troubles (mostly separations, at times following incidents of domestic violence), indebtedness (triggering evictions which in return trigger considerable social problems), and situations of irregular residence (Sans Papiers) causing extreme dependence on employers, landlords, etc. Each mediation session has at least two levels of intervention, the legal and the socio-economic level. The association provides initial and ongoing professional training in mediation. The following discussion of the presentation pointed to the difference for example in Bruxelles, where it is rather mediators who refer cases to legal counsellors. III. Boutiques de Droits (Lyon) presented by Mr. Bonnafé-Schmitt The city of Lyon has installed a mediation service made up of two programmes: the Boutiques de Droits (Law Shops) and the Association pour la mediation lyonnaise (Association for Mediation in Lyon). The Boutiques were created in a post-68 spirit of reapproaching residents to the justice system and nowadays works on access to justice, help for victims of crime and mediation. The service is made up of 9 Boutiques, 5-6 employed legal advisors (no attorneys since they tend to have judicial reflexes ), and local volunteer mediators who have been trained to do the job. The whole structure is supervised by a Comité de pilotage (Supervisory Board) made up of the attorney s office, the city, mediators, etc. A look at numbers provided some interesting insight into mediation and access to justice activities: An increase of mediation cases among all cases treated clearly underlines the need for mediation. Furthermore, 50-70% of demands for mediation are originating in the very same neighbourhood, and 50% of demands come from people who have already been to a Boutique % of cases concern civil law, 10-20% criminal law % of successfully ended mediation shows that at least 1 of 2 cases can be solved. Looking at perspectives of the service, it can be said that family conflicts and conflicts at work (related to overexploitation, irregular residence status and similar) are on the increase. A new area is mediation in schools where the accent is put on training pupils to become peer-mediators among their own co-students. The association has begun a training on mediation for people who already have some qualifications (such as union organizers to become mediators of work conflicts and similar) and proposes to work on an evaluation tool that goes further than collecting examples of Best Practices. However, a brief discussion highlighted the difficulties in measuring a success in mediation. To give an example of domestic violence, it can not automatically be considered a success of mediation when a battered wife returns to home. Better evaluation criteria might be cessation of trouble and a combined approach of qualitative and quantitative aspects. Attention is also given to avoid communitarianist mediation (mediation communitaire) where Turkish people would be mediators only in Turkish neighbourhoods, Arab mediators in Arab neighbourhoods and so on. Furthermore, it is important to establish mediation in separate institutional structures (and not attached to social centres, unemployment offices or similar) in order to guard its autonomous and neutral status.

5 IV. Droit d Urgence Paris presented by Mrs. Marianne Yvon The association working on access to justice and mediation was founded by lawyers in Paris in 1995 and unites 350 volunteer lawyers and 40 mediators providing legal counsel and engaging in approximately 40 mediations per year, often regarding irregular residence situation. Droit d Urgence works a lot in existing structures such as hospitals, and since 1998 in prisons. Two people are permanently employed since 2003, but the work remains difficult, under funded, and insufficient in comparison to the demand. More mediators are needed and better internal tools for mediation. V. Mediation Activities in Turin presented by Mr. Giovanni Ghibaudi Activities in mediation in Turin are not (yet) framed in an institutional structure such as it is the case in Brussels (Bravvo) and Pierrefitte (AFPAD) which appears as the primary objective in order to better manage all issues related at conflicts and mediation. However, several projects are already implemented. 1. A project on restorative justice involves 3 administrators from the city administration, 3 from the ministry of justice and 5 volunteer mediators. This projects aims to reconstruct social relations and to promote the respect of others as persons and supports encounters of aggressors with their victims within a space of responsibilisation of the perpetrator. Mediations are often invoqued by the Youth tribunal or other judicial figures and very rarely by the victims themselves. 2. The street mediation project is working within the framework of rehabilitation and development of the urban landscape, and carried out by an association on behalf of the city. The project organises activities of information and recreation and uses urban development as an opportunity to reconstruct the social links of communities in an empowerment process. 3. A third project is run by the local police (police de proximité) and aims mainly at sensitization of police officers. 4. A fourth project concerns family mediation (conflicts and separations). Here as in many other similar projects, demand exceeds the offer. 5. Finally, the intercultural mediation activities work to construct social links within immigrant populations encountering problems of identity, intergenerational and family conflicts, prejudice and stereotyping or solitude and marginalisation. For more information, see the case study and comparative table already developed in the Urbact framework for further information.

6 VI. Discussion and Conclusion The following discussion highlighted different issues: Mediation must be differentiated from traditional social work (accompanying individuals in a structured approach). Mediation activities are often complex and linked to many different issues such as security, violence, conflict, social problems, exclusion, families, etc. Many mediation activities in European cities have developed following an initial event (such as a conference or colloquium) looking at mediation as a possible response to mounting conflicts in urban areas (such as riots, social unrest, racist attacks, etc.) and they have been developed where state structures have clearly failed Mediation activities vary considerably in their organisational form: they can take on public, private (non-profit associations) or hybrid institutional forms. Forms of relationship with local government and administration vary, too: mediation can be demanded by political decision makers or public service departments (the case of Brussels), or other actors can pressure local administration to install a mediation service with positive response (the case of Pierrefitte), or non-public actors can begin to develop mediation activities without public support (the case of Droit d urgence). In most cases, the lack of public support is seen as a major problem and obstacle for effective mediation services Training remains a crucial point in order to deliver high quality services. W O R K I N G G R O U P S The working groups of the second day were spontaneously reversed to plenary debate given the few participants that were present. The two aspects that emerged from the first day discussions and that were to be addressed under the seminar agenda were issues related to training of mediators and issues related to other actors within mediation activities (and in particular the relationship with public administration). I. TRAINING 1. First of all, it is important to realise the difference between training for mediators or staff on the one hand and the necessity to sensitise and inform other actors about mediation (such as police officers, judicial personnel, social workers, local officials and politicians) on the other hand. Pierrefitte has installed a three-step approach in training. Initially, mediators are trained in the principles and techniques of mediation. In a second step, other actors are trained in order to sensitise them to the possibilities and capabilities of mediation (these trainings target social housing managers, social workers, etc.). These sensitisation trainings take two days and involve 160 participants up to now, and have proved effective to increase the demand for mediation where there might be a lack of information about such services. Sensitisation campaigns can also be a good way to recruit new mediators. Finally, a communication campaign was launched to sensitise and inform the general public in Pierrefitte. Brussels also provides initial training and ongoing training up to 10 days per year, and had initially a considerable budget for supervision

7 (now reduced). In terms of visibility and information of the public, it seems that large cities tend to have lots of demand and are thus rather unwilling to invest in public relations and communication, whereas smaller towns are more open to communicate to the general public. 2. A second major point relates to the contents and structure of training. While academic training in mediation is now available in many European countries, partners prefer training-on-the-job and use workshops, group discussions, and exchange of experiences in a setting of professional supervision. It also appeared that partners to the project usually hold a university degree in social work, social sciences or related fields rather than in psychology, mediation or conflict resolution. Consensus emerged on the importance of professionalism and high quality training in order to avoid the negative experiences of the late 1980s and early 1990s (peer mediation, politique des grandes frères ). 3. A third important point is continuous training on the job. Such ongoing training takes place in external associations (in Brussels for example in intercultural competences), or in internal evaluations, and even in European projects such as the EuroMediation working group. While professionalism in mediation can certainly be improved by ongoing training, it is important not to forget that work has to be done, too, which limits the possibilities for training in contexts of tight personnel and financial resources. 4. Finally, importance is given to the fact that mediators have to act within communities and in close contact to their clients, without loosing sight of root causes for conflicts. To give an example, it might be necessary to look further into root causes if mediation is constantly demanded at the same spot, or by the same people, since then mediation will not be able to address the underlying factors that reproduce the conflict. II. OTHER ACTORS The relationship with public institutions and in particular local administration appeared as the primary concern for partners. If this relationship is too close, mediators take risks on their standards of neutrality and independence (with a possible solution to separate mediation offices from other social or administrative services). If it is too loose, mediators take risks in insufficient funding and personnel and facing excessive demands that cannot be met by small or medium sized NGO structures (especially in large cities such as Paris, Marseille, Bruxelles). Consensus emerged that it is in any case essential to involve large public actors such as city administrations, the judicial system (courts, legal services, specialised youth justice systems, etc.). In doing so, three key factors were identified: - personal relations with responsible figures within these institutions are essential - power relations have to be considered within and outside these institutions (institutional competences, competition, different political parties, etc.) - agreement must be reached on the contents and objectives of mediation (different actors must agree on what they want to do) The last point triggers a whole series of questions that must be solved: the problem of institutional culture versus mediation culture can produce unproductive clashes, different working hours (street mediation often takes place at night) of mediators and public officials must be resolved for meetings, questions of legality, institutional framework, coordination,

8 budget, and evaluation of results must be addressed. If public institutions cannot easily be involved in mediation activities, insistence and the broadest possible publicity (copies of mail sent to other actors, e.g.) can help, as well as formalising the relationship in form of signed conventions that extend over several years in the best case. In some countries, the high turnover of superiors within the police force (such as changing Police Commissioners that are centrally delegated) pose problems of continuity and changing policy contexts. Summarizing the discussions, it appeared that in order to avoid heavy and bureaucratic structures, it is usually better to work within a non-public, NGO framework but with closest possible ties to the local administration. In these ties, political support from elected officials is essential. Therefore, a hybrid structure in the sense of an independent, not-for-profit organisation but with a maximum of financial and political support from administrations seems to be the best solution. The larger the partnership within which the association then cooperates with other actors (such as the police, landlords, residents associations, cultural clubs, etc.), the better in order to avoid domination. Finally, the importance to clearly separate the roles of lawyers/attorneys and mediators was recognised by all partners. While lawyers can often be directly consulted and implicated in mediation procedures (that concern legal questions), it is important to remember that it is essentially a mediation process that does not necessarily have to be dealt with by legal means let alone judicial process. In some cities, this goes so far as to have two different structures, one mediation service and one service for legal counselling (e.g. Brussels). G L O S S A R Y The discussions during the entire seminar produced some more definitions of mediation that add on to the ones identified in the first seminar in Brussels. It was proposed to define mediation as an educative process teaching people to take charge of their own lives (La mediation est un precessus éducatif: on reapprend aux gens de se prendre en charge). The criteria developed at the Brussels seminar were then used to form the basis for a glossary to be developed until the next meeting, with different cities taking up the charge to present draft definitions that can be discussed and validated by the working group: The city of Turin will develop proposals on the following terms: 1. Definitions that could be based on research an academic literature or on mission statements of mediation bodies (together with Pierrefitte) 2. Levels of intervention: individual interpersonal - collective 3. Forms of intervention: formal informal, compulsory voluntary 4. Financing of mediation activities: public, private, or both The city of Brussels will develop proposals on the following terms: 5. Objectives: - in conflict-related mediation: resolution, expression or merely reflection of conflicts, security issues

9 - in non-conflict related mediation: building of social links, improvement of community relations 6. Aims of mediation activities: security improvement, social, cultural, etc. 7. Localisation: centralized decentralized 8. Status and training of mediators: professional volunteer, professional secret, legal status of mediation The city of Pierrefitte will develop proposals on the following terms: 9. Demands or requests for mediation from different actors: individuals, schools, police, associations and organizations (of landlords, renters, communities, etc) 10. Mandate: public mandate (city), private (foundations, associations) or Public- Private-Partnership (local community safety contracts) 11. Methods: process oriented result oriented (together with Brussels) 12. Limits of mediation: acts of serious crime, very violent conflicts, etc. (together with Brussels) The city of Angers will develop proposals on the following terms: 13. Types of conflicts: individual, interpersonal, inter-group, cultural, social, spatial, etc. 14. Forms of request: direct indirect 15. Targeted areas/places: residents of a neighbourhood or a street, residents of an apartment building, users of public services The city of Liège will develop proposals on the following terms: 16. Target groups: citizens, cultural or linguistic communities, geographic communities, schools, families, youth, prisoners, etc. 17. Relevance: is mediation a technique or a profession? 18. Temporality of mediation: before during after (avant-pendant-après) 19. Organisation: questions of financing, public opinion and political decision, organizational aspects, etc.) Further important aspects of mediation that were identified during the seminar are 20. Evaluation: this is an important point because lack of evaluation can cause reduced funding and eventually the end of the service altogether (by lack of visibility and necessity to political decision makers); it is also complicated because mediation can be a success even without a concrete result (for example by gaining a new understanding of conflicts or empowering people to better analyse their situation) The draft texts will be discussed in the following seminars with a view to reach consensus on terminology and meaning of key words in mediation.

10 ! C O N C L U S I O N S A N D O U T L O O K Looking at the state of debate within the general project development, several points still need to be addressed that were identified in the Brussels seminar, while new issues have also arisen. Therefore, the outlook for the coming seminars includes: 1. Reexamine the security aspect, looking in particular to the preliminary consensus that was reached in Brussels 2. Analyse in more detail the questions related to financing and budgets 3. Finalise the collection and analysis of Good practices by looking at experiences in Angers and Turin (and possibly one other city). 4. Clearly identify common problems and common experiences of what works to overcome these obstacles 5. Establish clear choices of strategy when looking at common problems in mediation 6. Discuss and define the criteria to assess and compare mediation activities using the draft definitions of the glossary to be presented by different cities and with the view to reach consensus on vocabulary and terminology used when talking about different forms of mediation services 7. Reexamine the list of criteria in this sense and work on an Ethics for Mediators, looking more precisely into principals listed above 8. Compare the best practices that have been collected so far and begin the work on the tool kit. In evaluating the organisation of the seminar, the method of working in small groups was much appreciated and should be taken up again in following seminars. Apart from this, the possibility to visit local mediation projects was also mentioned as valuable contribution to understanding the mediation activities in the cities that will be hosting the coming seminars. C A L E N D E R EuroMediation Seminar in Angers, France March 30 April 1, 2006 EuroMediation Seminar and Final Conference in Turin, Italy October 19 21, 2006