Benefits and Liabilities of Multiparty Mediation Sample Clauses

Benefits and Liabilities of Multiparty Mediation. According to practitioner literature (Xxxxxxx et al. 1999) there are several serious challenges that the process of multiparty mediation is faced with. In case the mediation is conducted by a multitude of ac- tors there is always a possibility of confusion in the process. Namely, as Crocker, Hampson and Aall specify, ‘if there is no shared analysis of the problem and no sense of a common solution, different mediators will confuse the parties’ (2001, 57). This lack of shared ideas tends to produce mixed signals, which will be sent to conflicting sides, and consequently undermine the mediation efforts. With multiple mediators, disputing sides might tend to go ‘forum shopping’ with different mediators for se- veral reasons. UN Secretary General Xxx Xx-Xxxx noted that “multiple actors competing for a mediation role create an opportunity for forum shopping as intermediaries are played off against each other. Such a fra- gmented international response reinforces fragmentation in the conflict and complicates resolution” (Ban Ki-Moon 2009). At the same time, forum shopping can turn into a useful tool for procrastination of the overall negotiation process for those parties that lack the real commi- tment to achieve a settlement. Mediators might also channel their lack of commitment by ‘passing the buck’ to other mediators once things go wrong, in order to avoid being part of a failed effort. Despite these downturns, multiparty mediation has become a very practical solution to modern day conflicts which require elevated levels of commitment in order to manage them. Since rarely a single entity (being a state or an international/regional organization) is either capa- ble or willing to invest as much as is really required, more than one third party represents a good alternative. First of all, not every mediator en- ters the process with the same level or type of leverage. A combination of mediators with different leverages might contribute to the efficiency of collective activity, since the process might rely on ‘borrowing leve- rages’ from various sides. Participation of influential regional and global actors in the mediating coalition can contribute in ‘restructuring’ both domestic and regional relationships that hamper the achievement of a negotiated solution. Finally Xxxxxxx, Hampson and Xxxx emphasize that multiparty mediation’s advantage is that it permits different media- tors to enter the process according to their capabilities and thus contri- bute to the fac...