Mediation to be utilised more to resolve international family disputes
Georgetown, GINA, July 14, 2016
The end of the first day of the Hague Convention Conference on International Family Law, Legal Cooperation and Commerce: promoting Human Rights and Cross border trade in the Caribbean through the Hague Conference Conventions ended with two presentations on International Family Mediation.
Mediator and Attorney-at-Law- Teni Housty in an interview with the Government Information Agency (GINA), said that the session on International Family Mediation is a useful extension for local mediators, of the concept of mediation.
Teni Housty, Attorney-at-Law and trained mediator after an interview with the Government Information Agency
Mediation as an alternative dispute resolution technique is promoted by the Hague Convention.
Participants heard that the Hague Convention promotes the use of mediation to amicably settle cross -border disputes that arise, involving children with the exception of abduction.
Attorney Housty commenting on the session, explained that with the new family procedure rules being introduced by the local judiciary, mediation will play a more pivotal role.
“As mediators we’re going to be introduced to using mediation more in a family context and the fact that we have examples that we can look at from International Family Mediation provides a very useful opportunity for us… in the whole context of that, as well as the speakers’ identified guidelines for those mediation so that will help us,” Housty said.
Resolving Family Conflicts: A Guide to International Family Mediation was produced by the Hague Conference on Private International Law and offers a series of guides for mediators.
A section of the participants gathered for the Hague Convention Conference on International Family Law, Legal Cooperation and Commerce.
Participants also heard of the various types of mediation that move away from a winner -loser scenario, thereby garnering greater levels of efficiency in dealing with International Family Disputes.
Housty, said that this afternoon’s presentation mentioned a concept of co-mediation which local mediators were not using in mediation.
“The opportunity is useful now with the new environment being acclimatising for the family court rules for several examples to be followed. Whilst we may not yet have the cross – border mediation, the lessons learned and illustrated would be very useful for us in our local content,” Housty noted.