The School of Law at UCLan Cyprus is pleased to announce for yet another year the holding of a number of activities in February 2024 as part of the UCLan Cyprus Mediation Month 2024 where academics, students, professionals, and members of the public successfully come together once a year to explore the power of mediation in solving disputes and transforming relationships through a number of different activities.

The International Civil and Commercial Mediation Professional Training Course under the UCLan Centre for Mediation was successfully offered for the sixth consecutive year between 2-11 February 2024 on campus kick-starting the UCLan Cyprus Mediation Month 2024. Participants, including postgraduate law students (LLMs) of the School of Law, who successfully complete this course, can register as Mediators with the Ministry of Justice and Public Order in The Republic of Cyprus, the Civil Mediation Council in the UK and become certified by the International Mediation Institute (IMI), subject to relevant registration requirements. For another year lead trainer was Dr Monalisa Odibo, leading the UCLan Centre for Mediation, who worked alongside Dr Nevi Agapiou, Dr Maria Tatsiou, Dr Katerina Kalaitzaki and Professor Stéphanie Laulhé Shaelou of the School of Law, UCLan Cyprus, towards providing an interactive, high quality training course offering a life-changing experience and transferable dispute resolution skills to participants.

In the meantime, Dr. Maria Tatsiou was selected as a professional mediator for the 19th ICC International Commercial Mediation Competition that took place between 5 and 10 of February 2024 in Paris, where she acted as a judge. During that week, she participated in multiple workshops and roundtables hosted by the IMI, the ICC, as well as law firms’ events supporting the competition covering mediation’s latest “hot” topics. Furthermore, Dr. Tatsiou acted as a judge for the regional part of the American Bar Association (ABA) Representation in Mediation Virtual Competition hosted by Pace University on 24 and 25 February 2024.

Back in Cyprus, on 7 February 2024, UCLan Cyprus undergraduate law students also had the chance to attend a specially designed ‘Introduction to Conflict Management’ skills training session for them delivered by Dr Monalisa Odibo with the assistance of Dr Nevi Agapiou. This session was the first skills training workshop in a series of workshops organised by UCLan Cyprus together with the British Council in Cyprus. All workshops were delivered by well qualified alumni of UK universities, including of UCLan UK and UCLan Cyprus, with expertise in the respective fields. This series was open to all local university students aiming to provide valuable guidance, advice, and networking opportunities for students, impacting on their academic and career paths enhancement. Certificates of participation were issued for each workshop attended and received at an award ceremony and UK alumni networking reception that took place on Friday 29th March 2024 attended by the Director of the British Council in Cyprus, Ms Anastasia Andritsou, and the Deputy British High Commissioner to Cyprus, Mr Ben Rawlings. You can read more about this event here.

While no public event was held in February 2024 under the award-winning Social Mediation project of UCLan Cyprus and ICLAIM, it must be mentioned that work on Social Mediation has been ongoing in the background. In November and December 2023, the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence for the Rule of Law and European Values (CRoLEV) at UCLan Cyprus joined forces with Council of Europe’s Directorate General II – Division of Elections and Participatory Democracy and the Interdisciplinary Centre for Law, Alternative and Innovative Methods (ICLAIM) to deliver the first ever Council of Europe Academy on Participatory Democracy in Cyprus, in the second edition of the “Citizen Empowerment: Sustainable Rule of Law and European Values in Europe Series”. The event took place in hybrid mode, on 28 November and 1 and 2 December 2023 (full programme). Participatory democracy encompasses concrete tools that aim to strengthening civil participation, and participants agreed that the multiphasic nature of Social Mediation as an informal, non-political, and non-legal format of dispute resolution tool can enhance the building of consensus among citizens and institutions during public consultations and other participatory democracy processes. A summary of the event is accessible here and in the CROLEV blog series, and the findings from the event will contribute towards future activities and policy recommendations aiming to strengthen Participatory Democracy, Social Mediation and the Rule of Law. You may visit the Council of Europe’s press release here. The Report on ‘Citizen Participation: CRoLEV Sustainable Rule of Law and European Values in Europe Series’, Academy on Participatory Democracy in Cyprus is available here.