It is always important to celebrate, but, above all, there are more and more international, European and world days that fill our agendas, and with this we take stock of what we have done in this area and how much remains to be done.
There are International and World Days proclaimed by the UN, others that are declared by the popular culture of an area, by its following on social networks, even, as is the case in Spain on the topic of Mediation, to commemorate the exact date on which in 1998 was published what I like to call “the birth certificate” of this profession, when the European Recommendation on Family Mediation.
It is true that the purposes for which an express day arises are very varied: from protesting to recreational. Normally it serves to raise awareness, draw attention to a problem or situation. Other times to see the social interest in certain topics. Also to remember events or honor the memory of something or someone and above all to raise awareness and not forget. Even if the reader allows me, also to get research on the topic and resources.
I would draw attention to all this, when we talk about mediation, since it is about “looking in our closets” at what we have and also thinking about what we need.
The evolution in mediation
That is why in mediation, I sincerely believe that we have achieved a lot despite ignorance and often neglect, perhaps due to lack of pedagogy or many times because of having univocal criteria for its promotion. More and more I hear that information does not reach citizens. The end user of so many efforts by mediators to stay up to date, train, think about mediation and be mediators, is not aware of those benefits that we once knew. That is why I say that it is true that in “our closet” there is a lot: Professional Associations that have already definitively opened themselves to this profile, associations of all kinds, involved in creating this “culture of agreement.” Have… we have.
Why a European Mediation Day?
But the question on this European Mediation Day is what do we need? I would say, protect and take care of something as artisanal and as beneficial as mediation and bring together everything that a day like today means and, as I proposed above, INVESTIGATE AND GET MORE RESOURCES, being firm, with direct messages to the citizens, such as the instructions of a medicine when we open the box and see what it is for. Remember it, since we leave aside its composition, its conservation or its content and we go directly to “how to take it” and its “indications and contraindications”.
I would propose to you today, January 21, 2021, in the middle of the Pandemic, to raise awareness, reflect, propose solutions, bring those who need it closer, get more and more referrals, increase the spirit of collaboration between mediators, do Mediation Day activities and events, like the many scheduled for today and that will surely be scheduled year after year, and why not, have fun, enjoy what you have achieved and go out.
Happy Mediators Day.
Made by d. Javier Alés Sioli, Director of the International Forum of Professional Mediators (FIMEP) and collaborating teacher at EIM – International School of Mediation.
