Special for MEDIARE's 25th anniversary celebrations
Egmont: Beethoven as a symbol of change and expansion
by Rafael Fonseca

FFounded in 1997, MEDIARE is a pioneering organization dedicated to the practice and teaching of Dialogue and Consensus Methods for Dispute Resolution.

Remote action in 2020/2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic – made it possible to maintain all MEDIARE activities, which today work with a hybrid system in their service provision.

ACTIVITIES OVER THE YEARS

Continuing Education

According to international understanding, the panel of members of the entity are offered monthly update online meetings - Thematic Study Groups - GTs, aiming at their permanent improvement and loyalty to a quality practice, in addition to the General Study Group (GE) dedicated to topics related to Mediation and Facilitation of Dialogues. As of 2023, this Continuing Education Project will be developed in partnership with Instituto D'acccord, an entity also dedicated to teaching Mediation.

The Thematic Study Groups (GTs) are focused on specific subjects of each and aim at leveling and theoretical-practical improvement, as well as the eventual construction of projects - Families and Successions, Companies and Organizations, Family Businesses, Corporate Recovery, Civil, Communities, Schools, Collaborative Practices (consensual advocacy), Restorative Practices, Health, Public and Socio-environmental Policies, in addition to a reading group. Each thematic sector offers a free annual webinar, which enables monthly webinars, covering a variety of topics.

Online publications – E-books and Reviews

E-Books dedicated to different topics are published monthly on the MEDIARE website, for free use, as well as a summary of books that favor good practices in dialogue processes – Projeto Leia Comigo. The Reading Group also publishes its reviews on the website.

Directory

 With its first edition in 2016, the MEDIARE Yearbook is an ISSN-registered academic piece, a work that compiles articles on Conflict Mediation and Dialogue Facilitation, from each Thematic Sector of Study - GTs. This publication takes place every year and makes it possible not only to gather reflections on each thematic sector that results in an article, but also to give visibility to mediators who are dedicated to academic production.

paper publications

In 2014, its director published Mediation Toolbox - practical and theoretical contributions and in 2016 co-coordinated the work Conflict Mediation: for beginners, practitioners and teachers, in third edition published in 2020. The book Caixa de Valores II, was organized by the President of MEDIARE, has the contribution of other authors and is scheduled for publication in 2023.

Participation in Congresses and Seminars

 Its founder regularly participates in national and international congresses and seminars, presenting works, including having integrated the Steering Committee of the World Mediation Forum in the biennium 1999/2000.

Annual leave

MEDIARE has invited members of its training courses who complete the Supervised Practice phase to join a Panel of Mediators that offers free hours of action – the Hours Bank – for social assistance, as well as participation in inter-institutional cooperation projects .

Scholarship Offer for Future Mediators

For the theoretical segment of training, MEDIARE welcomes, at each edition, a student who does not have the financial means to pay for the course and who acts as a Teaching Assistant, taking care of the operationalization of the courses - contact with professors and students, collection of material and formatting handouts, administration of the digital platform during classes.

Cooperation Agreements with Public Entities

 The realization of the practical training stage for mediators is made possible by agreements with the RJ Court of Justice and the RJ Public Defender's Office, which make possible the free offer of Conflict Mediation to society and the supervised practice of mediators in the training stage.

Mediation for All

As part of the purpose of promoting a culture of dialogue, from 2021 MEDIARE has designed a Lecture Program for the student body of university environments, aimed at all graduations, and a Lecture and Seminar Program for the Third Sector and Groups of Minorities characterized by vulnerability. Both aspects of the Program – university students and the third sector/minorities in situations of vulnerability – are free of charge and their activities are developed in partnership with institutions that shelter the publics to which the Program is dedicated.

Pacificar Project Coordination

 In 2009, MEDIARE coordinated the teaching team that worked on the Pacificar Project – an incentive from the Ministry of Justice for the practice of Mediation in Law schools – at the Rio Law School of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation and the NGO Viva Comunidade, which took place in Complexo da Maré, in Rio de Janeiro. Its CEO served as overall supervisor of the project.

Its first research in 2017, took place in cooperation with the Center for Studies on Security and Citizenship (CESeC), on the quality of the practice of Mediation in the Judiciary of RJ (2016/2018). In 2018, also in partnership with the Center for Studies on Security and Citizenship (CESeC), it coordinated a survey dedicated to mapping the different community mediation programs existing in Brazil.

           

Participation in the national research on a Multiport Conflict Resolution System for Brazil, coordinated by the University of Saint Thomas Minneapolis, USA.

Project that built consensus on the subject after researching it with civil society: judges, lawyers, undergraduate and graduate professors, businessmen, law students, communities and NGOs. Its founder coordinated the facilitation of the national dialogue between the research participants and co-coordinated its publication in Brazil by the CEJUS of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation – Tribunal Multiportas – Investing in social capital to maximize the dispute resolution system in Brazil🇧🇷 The project's national coordinators were Professor Ada Pellegrini Grinover and Judge Kazuo Watanabe.

Training of Mediators - Training Course in Conflict Mediation - theory and simulations

 MEDIARE has been training mediators since 1998 – theoretical and practical segment. Every six months, the entity coordinates theoretical courses (100 hours) with groups with a multidisciplinary profile – doctors, lawyers, engineers, judges, psychologists, economists, administrators, social workers. On-site until 2021, these courses now take place remotely – live and synchronously. From 2023, MEDIARE develops the theoretical segment of this activity with Instituto D'accord, and the practical segment with Consenso, entities also dedicated to teaching dialogue processes.

Cooperation Agreements with Training Entities from other States

 Establishment of cooperation agreements with similar entities in other states of Brazil, aiming to compose a national institutional network, has enabled joint action and shelter – in two ways – of students who are in the supervised internship phase (Supervised Practice of real cases) .

MEDIARE Business Course – soft skills for Corporate Leaders

Since 2019, MEDIARE has offered, every six months, a customized course model for the corporate scenario, honoring the Improvement of Human Communication Skills, Integrative Negotiation Tools (aimed at the interests of all stakeholders and mutual benefit) and Resources for Collegiate Decision Making by Consensus (processes or scenarios involving multiple parties and dissonant interests), which avoid voting decisions.

Courses inCompany

 MEDIARE has offered workshops and courses in company on-demand and customized, dedicated to training in Mediation or focused on expanding skills in communication and negotiation, Facilitating Dialogues, improving leaders for conflict management, team coordination and decision-making. There is a growing corporate demand for this nature of improvement. At the institutional level, due to the restricted permission for disclosure, we highlight works in company, in different areas, meeting specific demands: at the Coca-Cola Brasil Institute (ICCB), at the National Electric System Operator (ONS), at Furnas Centrais Elétricas SA (Furnas), at Petrobras and at the CNA Jovem Program (young people from agribusiness) of the National Rural Learning Service (SENAR).

Courses and Workshops: Expansion of Skills for Conciliatory Practice, for Facilitating Dialogues, Conflict Management and Decision Making – school and community scopes.

Throughout its existence, MEDIARE has offered courses for legal operators – judges, judges and lawyers (Expansion of Skills for Conciliation Practice), as well as for community actors and leaders (Facilitation of Dialogues), sometimes in cooperation with NGOs .

Cooperation Agreements with University Entities - postgraduate

 In 2019/2020/2021, he coordinated, together with the Department of Law at PUC-RIO, a Specialization course in Family Mediation, including three international seminars.

Training of Mediators in the Public Sector

 MEDIARE has offered its teaching for the training programs in Mediation of the Public Prosecutor's Office of Rio de Janeiro (V Editions) and of the Public Defender's Office of Rio de Janeiro (2011 and 2015). Likewise, it participated in state and municipal projects in other states of the federation, aimed at training mediators and facilitators of dialogues, as well as improving practitioners and supervisors in this field, in the public and private spheres, including PGEs and PGU. Some of these actions preceded the formalization of Self-Composition Centers in these institutions.

Participation as didactic-pedagogical co-coordinator and professors in the Conflict Mediation in Citizen Security course 

Subsidized by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the National Secretariat for Public Security (Senasp), this pilot project, which took place in Rio de Janeiro in 2007, was offered to 470 participants: judges, prosecutors, defenders, different corporations, community managers, judiciary technicians, voluntary conciliators.

Participation in International Tenders

 MEDIARE participated in a bidding process for the Training of Mediators in the Republic of Cape Verde, in 2006, and was ranked first in terms of technical competence of the proposal, as shown in a document sent by the Ministry of Justice of Cape Verde. The option of Cape Verdeans to carry out the program was the lowest financial cost proposal.

Training of Conciliators in the Public Sector

In 1999, MEDIARE coordinated the Training Course for Volunteer Conciliators of the General Public Defender's Office in Rio de Janeiro. Since then, he has been giving lectures to judicial conciliators and judges, aiming at expanding their skills for conciliatory practice.

Participation in the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Project for the Promotion and Practice of Mediation and Arbitration in Brazil

In addition to being an institution invited to join the project, in 1999, its CEO served as a member of the Project Coordination and Control Commission.

Practice of Mediation and other Non-Adversarial Dispute Resolution Methods

 The provision of services in Mediation and Facilitation of Dialogues is carried out, through private and social practice, at the MEDIARE Chamber.

Working in Corporate Mediation Centers

The practice of Mediation is growing internal corporis, using mediators internal or external to organizations. MEDIARE has acted in these projects, when external mediators are required.

World Bank

 The Founder of MEDIARE was part of the panel of five mediators trained by the World Bank to work in the Bank's internal dispute resolution system in Latin America – Latin American Pilot Program. She was in charge of the Bank's bodies that operate in Brazilian territory, in the period 2010/2020, facilitating dialogues in mediations and offering training.

Participation in the Foundation and in the Board of Directors of the National Council of Mediation and Arbitration Institutions – CONIMA.

MEDIARE is one of the founding institutions of the National Council of Mediation and Arbitration Institutions – CONIMA – whose board of directors was integrated by the CEO of MEDIARE in different mandates. The Director-President of MEDIARE was part of the drafting committees for the Code of Ethics and the Model Rules for Mediation, as well as the one dedicated to building a basic curriculum for Training in Mediation. She also assisted in CONIMA's interlocution with the Drafting Commissions of the Draft Mediation Law at the time she was part of the management. She currently serves as Director of Mediation.

Participation in FONAME – National Mediation Forum

 MEDIARE is part of the panel of institutions that make up the National Mediation Forum (FONAME), having participated in the writing team of the Code of Ethics for Mediators.

Team of Specialists from the Secretariat for Judiciary Reform – Ministry of Justice – for drafting the legal framework for Mediation in Brazil.

In 2013, its founder joined the commission that provided the basic text for PL/7169/14 – pre-construction of the legal framework for Mediation and, subsequently, joined the Multidisciplinary Team at the Secretariat for Judiciary Reform, which offered guidelines for the Project of the Brazilian Mediation Law – Law 13.140/15.

Participation in the XNUMXst and XNUMXnd Journey of Extrajudicial Dispute Resolution of the Federal Council of Justice – to compile statements related to the Brazilian Legal Framework.

Its founder was part of the teams coordinated by Judge Kazuo Watanabe, dedicated to statements concerning Mediation.

Socio-environmental and Public Policies

 MEDIARE had a teaching role with graduate students in the environmental area (COPPE-UFRJ) and environmental technicians from Petrobrás who participated in consensus building processes on issues involving public policy. Its director-president worked on research subsidized by the Inter-American Development Bank – BID, integrating a publication on the topic – Dissemination of methods for peaceful conflict resolution🇧🇷 Mediadores en Red Magazine (November 2004) − with a view to disseminating this practice to Latin America, including a Brazilian example.

Participation in thematic study groups and training of technicians from private companies who work at the interface with the community, when environmental issues are part of projects, are part of its scope of action. In 2016, he coordinated a Facilitation of Dialogues at the Orla Búzios Project, in partnership with the NGO Viva Búzios, which resulted in a social pact between members of the local community – fishermen, residents, traders, businessmen. Until 2018, MEDIARE hosted a group of studies and projects in the Socio-environmental and Public Policy area, a topic that was resumed in 2023. In 2019 and 2020, it coordinated the facilitation of Dialogues in the Corporate Assembly of Gás Natural da Açú-GNA with the communities that are part of its socio-environmental project.

Criminal Mediation - Restorative Practices

 Participation in an agreement with the Court of Justice of Rio de Janeiro and work with a multidisciplinary team of mediators at the IX Special Criminal Court - RJ and Family Courts of the Barra da Tijuca Forum (2007/2019). It acted as a partner institution of the Center for Mediation, Self-composed Methods and Restorative System of the Public Ministry of the State of Rio de Janeiro – CEMEAR – cooperation agreement for case management. Since 2019, MEDIARE has coordinated a Thematic Study Group – GTem Restaurative Practices, currently (from 2023) maintained in partnership with Instituto D'accord.

School Mediation

 MEDIARE has carried out work in this field, developing projects and programs for municipal and private schools and encouraging companies to subsidize them, through the practice of social responsibility, in an attempt to bring the culture of peace and the fight against violence to the school universe. In 2000/2001, he co-coordinated a program in public schools in Rio de Janeiro, subsidized by the Ministry of Justice. In 2014, he coordinated the Skills Program for Dialogue with Teachers and Coordinators of kindergartens located in the Vidigal Community. In 2015 and 2016, he coordinated lectures and dialogue facilitation processes in educational institutions in the south zone of Rio de Janeiro. In 2017, it hosted the study of Non-Violent Communication in the Institutional School Mediation Sector. In 2018/2019 it sponsored workshops dedicated to the School Mediation Program. In 2021, he worked in a private school, improving skills for dialogue with a group of students, and in 2022 with directors associated with Sinepe Rio. MEDIARE, in partnership with Instituto D'accord (from 2023), coordinates a group of studies and projects in the area of ​​School Mediation, which maintains specific actions in the sector.

Community Mediation

 The institution has offered seminars to NGOs that work with community programs and community leaders that highlight the technical contributions of Conflict Mediation, with a view to qualitatively increasing their practices as facilitators of dialogues. It developed a DVD dedicated to the theme to work with an illiterate population and a booklet aimed at multiplying its exposure. This project is marked by sustainability, since it is dedicated to training multipliers – community actors who are trained to reproduce it under our supervision.

In 2013, it started operating in the Vidigal Community, in Rio de Janeiro, promoting training courses in Mediation and the Skills Expansion Program for Dialogue; from 2014 to 2017, she coordinated the Supervised Real Practice of the Mediators who were part of the 2013 and 2015 Theoretical Courses in that community. The Pacificar Project, carried out in cooperation with FGV RJ in 2009, took place in Comunidade da Maré, in Rio de Janeiro. In 2018, he dedicated research aimed at mapping Community Mediation Programs in Brazil. MEDIARE, in partnership with Instituto D'accord (from 2023), coordinates a thematic group of studies and projects in this area.

Family Mediation - Families and Successions

 The practice of Mediation and Facilitation of Dialogues within the family has been highlighted, through agreements with the Court of Justice of Rio de Janeiro and the Public Defender's Office of Rio de Janeiro. An agreement with the Child, Adolescent and Elderly Court for seven years (1999 and 2005) also made it possible to act on issues related to those judgments. In 2019/2020, he coordinated, in partnership with PUC-RIO, a Specialization Course in Family Mediation. MEDIARE coordinates a study group dedicated to the area of ​​Families and Successions in partnership with Instituto D'accord (from 2023).

Mediation and Ombudsman

 MEDIARE participated in seminars dedicated to extracting from Conflict Mediation the procedural and technical contributions for the qualified practice of the ombudsman. These works have included public and private sector ombudsmen.

Corporate and Family Business Mediation. Mediation in Corporate Governance.

MEDIARE maintains a group of studies and projects on the subject (starting in 2023 in partnership with the Dáccord Institute), to meet the proposal of permanent updating of mediators who work in the area. Conducts Training in company and operates in the corporate field by facilitating internal dialogues and mediating issues between companies or groups of companies, as well as contractual issues involving the network of stakeholders. Mediation in the Civil and Business areas has been fostered by the participation of students in training (practical internship) in the Cooperation Agreement with the Court of Justice of Rio de Janeiro – Central Forum. Mediation in Corporate Governance has been encouraged by training courses with this specific objective. In partnership with Better Governance and support from the IBGC, the course Soft Skills for Directors, encourages this nature of improvement in Boards of Directors.

Collaborative Practices - PC

 The practice of collaborative law presupposes non-litigation, contractually established, and the performance of an interdisciplinary team in conflicting issues that demand consensus. Lawyers work in partnership and not in opposition, and the members of the interdisciplinary team are requested whenever necessary.

MEDIARE started, in 2011, the first Brazilian group of studies in CP, origin of other groups, now spread throughout Brazil, and was part of the organization of the first International Training in Collaborative Practices in Family Law, which took place in April 2012, in Rio de Janeiro, Since then, he has been participating in subsequent training courses held in different states of the Federation. The capillarization of this idea led to the founding of the Brazilian Institute of Collaborative Practices (IBPC). In the scope of Family Law, MEDIARE's Collaborative Practices Sector played a relevant role when CP won recognition from the Innovare Award, advocacy segment, in 2013. MEDIARE was part of a team that coordinated, in September/October 2014, the 2023st Training in Collaborative practices in the civil area. Coordinates a PC study group dedicated to the area of ​​Families and Successions in partnership with Instituto D'accord (from XNUMX).

Mediation in the Health Area

 MEDIARE coordinates a study group in the area of ​​Health dedicated to readings and lectures (from 2023 in partnership with Instituto D'accord), case studies and training in company🇧🇷 In 2018, he coordinated the training (theoretical module) of mediators working at the Center for Mediation and Conciliation at UNIMED-RJ. In 2019, he coordinated the Dispute Systems Design program - DSD in a Hospital Unit in Rio de Janeiro, aiming to map and expand the Internal Dialogue and Dispute Resolution System and with its stakeholders.