The International Family Mediation Project, ‘IFMP’, is a voluntary project and initiative established in late 2022 by a group of international experts, who include some of the world’s leading mediators. The intention includes:
- to work with mediators and stakeholders globally to create a form of international family mediation profession;
- to encourage the use of mediation by international families (and their lawyers) in dispute resolution;
- to help mediators around the world conducting international family mediation cases
- to prepare documents, create good practices and codes and other tools to set up a profession of mediators working with international families around the world,
- specifically to meet the needs of international families and their children post relationship breakdown to resolve matters out of court.
By sharing this work on this website, the steering group invite Justice Departments, court services, judges, mediators, lawyers and all others working with international families to give feedback. This should thereby help all others involved in this work globally and produce good quality documents, standards and similar for the benefit of this work and ultimately the benefit of those who need better opportunities to resolve difficult disputes with cross-border elements.
Some projects have started and are out for general global consultation, others are underway and yet others still to be started.
Ultimately the hope is that something similar to the United Nations Singapore Mediation Convention can be created to give international effect to this work and to the mediation agreements reached.
Who Are We
The Project was set up by Dr Róisín O’Shea of Ireland and Prof. David Hodson OBE KC(Hons) of England, following discussions over several years of their frustration of little progress in encouraging mediation for international families. In turn, a steering group has been formed of which details are here.
The separate areas of work have their own working party of whom details are in the relevant sections of this website.
What is The International Family Mediation Project?
The International Family Mediation Project is an international initiative, led by a group of experts, on a voluntary basis, to work with mediators and stakeholders globally to create a form of international family mediation profession, dealing with international family law issues; by creating good practices and providing resource documents and guidelines, to meet the needs of international families and their children post the break-down of a relationship.