Summary of Action:
The Ombudsman as a Mediator project aims to build capacity to mediate community conflict. Staff members of the institution of the Provincial Ombudsman of Vojvodina and several local ombudspersons from Vojvodina and Serbia have finished a mediation training prior to the project launch. During three years of project implementation another 140 individuals in local communities will be trained in community and peer mediation.
After the 1st year of activities which included basic training in mediation and facilitation skills for 69 people, the second project year will aim to introduce mediation as one of the regular activities of the Provincial Ombudsman’s and specifically that of the local ombudspersons’ offices throughout Vojvodina. In addition, the core group of mediators trained in the first year will continue practicing acquired mediation skills and competence within their local communities (at schools, in municipal interethnic councils, complaints committees and the Provincial Living Without Violence Network dealing with issues of domestic violence).
Specifically the project staff will facilitate this process by developing a protocol/policy paper on mediation for the ombudsman institutions which will deal with procedures relating to intake, agreements and responsibilities relating to mediation within an institution, confidentiality, ethics and other issues. This will also clarify how mediation fits into existing Serbian legal framework and will ensure that the mediation capacity built within the ombudspersons’ institutions is sustainable.
The project will also focus on monitoring and evaluation to document the changes and benefits experienced by local communities as a result of this work. This will include collecting data on current levels of conflict in local communities, need for mediation and cases mediated, as well as developing appropriate indicators for change.
After the second project year the following outputs are expected:
• Minimum of 13 people from ombudsman institution trained and skilled in mediation;
• Minimum of 120 individuals from local communities trained in mediation skills;
• Minimum of 30 conflict situations mediated by participants of the trainings;
• Minimum 20 institutions, community groups and/or individuals in Vojvodina started applying and documenting mediation in their work;
• 3 people finishing a MA University course in conflict transformation.
Except for facilitating a more rational use of community resources (such as time and money) and building on the existing social capital of the local communities, the aims of the project are also tackling interethnic conflicts at the local level and decreasing the number of cases going to the courts. This will contribute to building the local community capacities in dealing with conflicts by increasing the number of competent conflict resolution practitioners, i.e. community and peer mediators. These competencies will be developed both in the core ombudspersons’ groups and the mediation seminars trainees’ groups trained by them. The initial institutional framework for applying mediation within the ombudspersons’ institutions will provide legitimacy for further application of mediation in institutions all over Vojvodina such as schools, social welfare centres, municipal complaints committees, interethnic councils, etc.
On a higher level, the ethnic diversity of Vojvodina, huge socio-economic gaps among its population and instable social situation in the country create a fertile ground for rise in incidents of intolerance, interethnic conflicts and aggression, particularly among children and youth. Therefore this project provides for improvement of conditions for creating better community relations by empowering local community member in using positive conflict management approaches and techniques, mediation being one of them. This will contribute to creating a more tolerant and cohesive society in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina.
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