Volume 8 – 2015, No. 2

Giving one’s opinion might jeopardize a conciliator’s credibility as a neutral third party, and largely limit the benefits conciliation might provide participants with in terms of recognizing their self-determination abilities and the personal and relational implications of reinforcing the awareness of what each party is able to do.

Not focusing on the agreement as the only goal of the process will allow the parties to achieve intermediate results (which is not necessarily of lesser importance).

Conciliation hearings might be the appropriate space for people to feel they take back their “voice”, that what they have to say is relevant and that there is someone who represents the State and is interested in their situation.

This article introduces an original teaching model – a “pedagogy for peacebuilding” – designed to help students and practitioners integrate conflict analysis in response interventions. The author discusses the importance of conflict analysis and compares alternative approaches, focused on theory vs. context vs. technocratic priorities. The article then explains the author’s “integrated theories of change model” and weaves together seven elements: 1) context analysis and needs assessment, 2) overall goal of intervention, 3) theory of change, 4) specific objectives and activities, 5) beneficiaries, stakeholders and spoilers, 6) scope, resources and risks, and 7) indicators of success. In a fragmented world beset by diverse social, political, and familial conflicts, we need comprehensive tools (and hands-on training) to better understand and respond to conflict.

This article describes mediation in cases of International Parental Kidnapping (IPK) in the context of Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction adjudication processes. The Hague Conference on International Private Law (HccH), in cooperation with signatory States’ Central Authorities, has determined that mediation is a suitable solution for complex, multi-systemic, multi-level interventions. Notwithstanding this advancement, the article highlights the fledgling methodological status of IPK mediation research. The article evaluates two Reunite International empirical studies of the effectiveness of Hague Abduction Convention mediation and, more broadly, describes the limitations of empirically-based mediation study methodologies.  Paths forward for future research are proposed and the pivotal role of social workers in developing evidence-based IPK mediation praxis is noted.

Being young and living in economically depressed communities are the greatest risk of becoming victims of violent crime: a national survey of children between the ages 10 to 16 revealed that more than half had been victims of violence. At the same time, a study by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency found that the most important factor in predicting criminal behavior on the part of teenagers was whether they had been victims of crime.

Restorative Justice Hubs are community sites (community or faith based organizations) that offer effective violence prevention and intervention strategies for court and gang involved youth and families, providing a structured and supportive atmosphere that promotes healing and pro-social development.

This article explains the creation and development of Restorative Justice Hubs created in Chicago to draw attention on this issue, their mission, vision and values, as well as on the programs they develop.

Mediation is a process that assigns meaning through the discourse of the disputants whereby signals that are verbally sent become rare indicators to dig for full communication. If reading nonverbal language was not taken into account, we would lose approximately 93% of the total information conveyed by someone; for this reason, it is necessary to know the most recurrent gestures to, thus, foster mediators’ communication skills in order to substantially improve their discourse and understanding.

This paper focuses on arguing why nonverbal language is crucial for the mediation process on the basis of the analysis of the theoretical framework of the matter and its implications for mediation.

The development of a manuscript with sound contents is as important as the style of the format used when submitting the article to an academic or professional journal. Authors have expressed their concern of not having a model that might guide them in this process; for this reason this articles intends to provide authors who wish to submit articles to any academic or professional publication, Revista de Mediación for instance, in accordance with the American Psychological Association (APA), an easy and practical publication model to be used as a guide for preparing articles. Furthermore, it can be a support tool for other publications and for the evaluators in charge of assessing manuscripts. In this article, some basic format and style aspects are presented, ranging from the title to the bibliography; also, some documents are enclosed as annexes for authors’ self-evaluation.