The creation of an international association
Family lawyers, collaborative professionals and some others working with international families have created associations. These are self-supporting, identifying peers in other countries, having minimum standards and frequently sharing news and developments and good practice.
There is nothing in family mediation.
A working group will analyse how such a grouping or association can be created. It might be under the umbrella of an existing organisation, perhaps already working in international mediation. It might be possible with the benefit of an existing commercial organisation operating for the benefit of international families. It might be necessary to start from scratch albeit using existing models.
Inevitably it will have to consider matters of governance, although that might flow from any work with other organisations. It will be crucial for those already working within international mediation to be stakeholders or similar.
A crucial element is branding. How will an international family, individually or together, find a suitable mediator? How will a lawyer in one country find a mediator in another country? How can the mediators with a good level of training distinguished themselves from others if, as expected, there is a growth in international family mediation work?
This will cross-reference with training and accreditation.
It will work with the existing project on ethics and codes of good practice. This is a further challenge in the context of cross-border work. Fortunately excellent work has already been undertaken by the Hague conference of international law with its guidelines on good practice in international child abduction mediation. It’s highly likely that any professional association will embrace that work, perhaps building on it where necessary. View the code of conduct page here.
A distinctive feature of family mediation is screening and intake. Family mediators are very alert to bullying, power imbalance and the impact of domestic abuse. Family mediators have very high standards of screening. Either as part of this working party or as a stand-alone, it will be necessary to examine what would be the minimum requirements for the distinctive circumstances of international family mediation especially if the parties may be in different countries. Again, the success of this work will be significantly based on the integrity and reputation from the screening and intake process adapted to the international context.
If anyone would be interested in working in this aspect, please get in touch.