Diploma in
Mediation and Conflict Resolution

Conflict theory and conceptual foundations of mediation and alternative conflict resolution methods. mediation models.

Content:
Learn the conceptual ontological development of the conflict that has given way to the configuration of an authentic Theory of Conflict. Conceptually systematize the different currents of approach, management, handling or solution of conflicts. Analyze the legal framework of mediation and conciliation. Define nature, legal effects and fields of application of mediation. Identify the conceptual framework for the development of the casuistry and subsequent modules. Generate ontological conceptual frameworks that illustrate the development of skills and guide the strategic intervention of the mediator.

• The different contexts of conflicts.
• The substance of the conflict.
• Conflict costs and life cycle.
• The power of the actors in the conflict.
• The human face of the conflict: psychological games.
• Complexity and intensity of conflicts.
• Coalition game.
• The outcome of the conflict.
• Conflict life cycle. Latency state. Prevention stage. Conflict emergency. Resolution stage. Escalation and reaching the destructive threshold. Containment stage so that it does not cross the threshold. Approach from complexity.
• The human dynamics of conflict.
• Neuro-Linguistic Programming applicable to conflict resolution.
• Relevant behavioral metaprograms in dealing with conflicts.
• Read conflicts from emotion.
• Introduction to conflict resolution methods.
• Conflict resolution methods and access to justice.
• Legal and Constitutional Framework of Alternative Conflict Resolution Methods in legislation.
• Interest Satisfaction Model (Harvard Model).
  • The Harvard School and the Theory of Negotiation.
  • Zero-sum bargaining vs principle-based bargaining.
  • Strategy games. The engine of the negotiation.
  • Mediation, an efficient process.
  • Expected result: Improve the situation. May people be better.
  • Role plays.
• Transformative model.
  • Recognition and appreciation.
  • Mediation, a pedagogical process.
  • Expected result: Improve values. Let people be better.
• Circular-Narrative Model.
  • The weight of the stories. Communicate better.
  • The power of storytelling in mediation.
  • Multidisciplinary sources of the model.

The mediation process in four stages: knowledge and skills of the mediator appropriate to each stage.

Content: Develop the structure of the mediation process in four stages and the comprehensive training of the mediator in knowledge and skills to manage the process.

• Mediator Profile: Neutrality. Communication. Negotiation. Strategy.
• The emotional intelligence of the Mediator:
  • self knowledge
  • Self-management and emotional self-regulation   
  • Motivation
  • Empathy
  • Positive Conflict Management.
• The Stages of the Process.

PROCESS – FIRST STAGE
Objectives of this stage:

• Speech by the Mediator and welcome of the parties
• Validation of individual perceptions of the conflict brought by each of the parties
• Understanding of the conflict and bases for collaboration between the parties.
• Mediation Agreement

Duties of the Mediator:

• Contain the catharsis process.
• Create a climate of trust in the process and in the mediator.
• Description of the process with clear and honest information
• Signing of the confidentiality agreement
• Listen and validate the stories of both parties.
• We resolve conflicts that we can understand. Make the conflict understandable to the parties. (origin/development/other parties involved/positions towards the conflict/alternatives, etc).
• Clear up misunderstandings.
• Show different points of view

Mediator's Speech:

• Explanation of the mediation agreement (non-disclosure agreement).
• Explanation of the three basic pillars (voluntariness, confidentiality and impartiality).
• Explanation of the Procedure (joint and private sessions).
• Standards of appropriate conduct.
• Adequate space for the type of mediation.
• Final agreement and its value.

PROCESS – SECOND STAGE
Objectives of this stage:

• Limits of the mediation process
• Identify and prioritize the interests of the parties
• Definition of Relational Responsibility
• Recognition and revaluation of the other
• Create a work schedule

Mediator functions:

• Make understandable to the parties the issues that can be worked on in mediation and those that cannot.
• Prioritize according to the needs of the case, the issues to be resolved on the agenda.
• Work on the Outcome & Relationship dimensions
• Facilitate mutual recognition
• Encourage respect for individual needs
• Development of the Respons(H)ability of the parties

PROCESS – THIRD STAGE
Objectives of this stage:

• Construction of a joint vision of the situation
• Generation of creative ideas
• Co-participation of the parties
• transforming proposals

Mediator functions:

• Encourage the creativity of the parties.
• Prepare the parties to collaborate in the construction of joint solutions.
• pick the options
• Verify that the options are applicable in reality

PROCESS - FOURTH STAGE
Objectives of this stage:

• Realistic proposals for a mutual agreement
• Assume costs and generate actions.
• Signature of the agreement
• Closing of the process: Learning.

Mediator functions:

• Satisfaction of the parties.
• The sustainability of the agreement
• Give the parties a time to reflect before signing the agreement
• The way of writing the agreement (clear and concise, written in such a way that the parties fully understand its scope).
• Establish the phases to make the agreement operational.
• Include a mediation clause.
• Establish the way of monitoring the agreement.

Application of neuroscience in the conflict resolution process: its benefits in mediation and negotiation.

Content:
The conflict is the product of a human relationship, positively influencing that relationship, understanding the comprehensiveness of the dimensions of the conflict, is not only necessary but also strategic for the management and resolution of conflicts. The development of neuroscience contributes with analysis and specific tools applicable to conflict resolution processes.

• Natural history of emotionality: Understanding the physiological bases of emotional processes. 
• Empathy, empowerment and trust: The three emotional pillars of the mediating role. 
• Fundamental principles and basic tools for regulating emotional tensions and preventing destructive escalations during dialogue. 
• The use of individual meetings in addressing processes of intense destructive escalation. 

Practical strategies to improve communication and creativity in the mediation process.

Content:
Communication and creativity are essential elements in conflict resolution processes; The objective of this module is to have specialized skills and strategies applicable in its management and resolution, expanding and updating the mediator's toolbox.  

• Communication Styles.
• Communication and conflict resolution.
• Effective communication techniques
• Trust Generation
• Perception and understanding
• Reframes
• The art of asking
• Adaptation of the Johari Window.
• Creativity and conflict resolution.
• strategic thinking
• Generative thinking.

Mediation and restorative justice in the family environment: specific strategies.

Content:
The characteristics of conflicts between members of the same family determine that the use of self-composition mechanisms is more advisable, to the extent that the rights of children are adequately protected and agreements are reached in scenarios of balance of power between the parts. The permanent, complex and diverse relationships that occur in the family nucleus require mechanisms and processes that adapt to the context and not the context to a rigid process. This requires specialized training and appropriate strategies for family dynamics. Families: Latin American families evolution and contexts. Latin American childhood and poverty. Power in parental relationships, functions and the right to be heard, in defense of their rights. Parental, social and state responsibility. Interdisciplinary framework. Conflicts and violence in parental contexts and couples of parents. Characteristics of the conflicts between the components of a family group. Myths, beliefs, stereotypes. The social, factors that affect socialization. Social role of law in regulating the positive value of conflict in family relationships with a restorative approach.

• Communication, the story of the parties in the restorative processes applied to family conflicts, its strength: adequacy and flexibility in supporting access to economic, social, cultural and environmental rights in the family sphere. 
• Metalanguage language, information: what was said, what was done, communication sequences, with crossed emotions, tensions: position-interest-needs-values-feelings, their incidence in decisions. 
• Expanding the concept of justice: adversarial response systems and self-composition mechanisms. Function of agent of the reality of the restaurateur, Systemic, interdisciplinary, preventive approach, dejudicialization, support and control requirements.
• Specialized training and strategies appropriate to the dynamics of the different family models:
  • Management of communication in permanent, complex relationships, crossed by intersectorialities, age, sex, race, poverty, migration.
  • Diagnosis of the conflictive relationship, proposal, reframing of the conflict and generation of options. Methods and techniques.
  • Instances of reformulation of relationships: understanding, commitment, transformative process, choice and evaluation of options and consequences in coexistence and emerging rights of parenthood.
  • Strength of the role of the restorer, guide, substantive and procedural agreements. Partial or total. closures.
  • Right to be restored in the family, social, state environment, with respect for their culture, to the autonomy of the will in complex contexts.
• The management of rights as guarantees of favorable conditions for human development. Analysis of good practices. Risks and possibilities in Latin America.
• Management of communication in permanent, complex and diverse relationships that occur in the family nucleus:
• Characteristics of conflicts between members of the same family.
• Diagnosis of the relationship.
• What can and cannot be agreed?
• Managing stress in the relationship.
• The rights at stake protected by the legal system.
• Transferable and non-transferable.

Alternative conflict resolution and penal system. Restorative justice in the juvenile field.

Contents:

The application of alternative conflict resolution methods in the penal system is today a reality in national legislation and in many countries around the world. Its development is fundamental to accompany policies of minimum criminal intervention and very necessary to provide more appropriate responses to the criminal conflict, both for the victims, for society and for the offender himself. These developments are recent and are still in some cases little used. Its correct impulse and application require its correct theoretical and practical understanding; and an adequate public policy that promotes them. The development of children's rights and the more or less widespread failure of criminal responses to offenses committed by minors have forced a reconsideration of the traditional juvenile criminal justice system. In some cases, the proposals go in the direction of penal populism that proposes tougher penalties and lowering the age for criminal responsibility, proposals that have only proven to aggravate the problem. For this reason, the study, development and adequate implementation of Restorative Juvenile Justice as an alternative to traditional repressive justice is essential to contribute socially to more appropriate responses from the system to a phenomenon that requires attending to the particularities of a person in training and the social demands for greater security and access to rights.

• Legal and ethical framework of Criminal Mediation.
• Criminological Objectives of Criminal Mediation:
• Ensure the reparation of the damage to the victim.
• Reestablish the harmony of coexistence.
• Contribute to the rehabilitation of the offender.
• Mediation/Reparation.
• Repair forms.
• The role of the mediator.
• The limits of mediation.
• The principles of Restorative Justice.
• Retributive justice and restorative justice.
• Fundamentals and procedures of restorative justice.
• Advantages and disadvantages.
• Mode in which Criminal Mediation is carried out.
• The victim-offender relationship.
• The admission of responsibility in the criminal mediation process.
• Role of the prosecution and other actors in the criminal process in mediation.
• Different models of Juvenile Justice.
• Penal Model.
• Tutelary model.
• Restorative model.
• Specialized Justice Model.
• Purposes and principles of juvenile criminal de-judicialization.
• Best interest of the child, de-judicialization and citizen security.
• Comparative Law in Juvenile Justice.
• International instruments and standards on Juvenile Criminal Justice.
• Ibero-American Declaration of Restorative Juvenile Justice.
• Responsibility, damage repair and social reintegration.
• Internment measures and non-custodial measures. Analysis of good practices.
• The rights of the victim and society in juvenile justice.
• Successful experiences. Risks and possibilities in Latin America.
• Facilitation of cases.

The practice of mediation: strategic interventions of the mediator and workshop for the elaboration of mediation minutes. Registration process and management of mediation centers.

Content:
Deepen the mastery of Mediator skills and their strategic use, mainly through practical exercises and role plays. Know the registration procedure of a mediation center in accordance with the provisions of the Arbitration and Mediation Law and the Center Registration Instructions.

• Audience installation. Location of the parts. Light, temperature, comfort of the parts.
• Mediator Strategy.
• Practical exercises and role plays.
• Ethical dilemmas in mediation.
• Role play: The mediation process step by step.
• Handling difficult conversations.
• Management of the private audience.
• Workshop for preparation of mediation minutes.
• Analysis of the legal requirements for the creation of mediation centers.
• Study of the Instructions for the creation and operation of mediation centers issued by the Council of the Judiciary.
• Preparation of a file for the registration of a new mediation center.