Justice Minister Austin Gatt last week of inaugurated a Family Mediation training course at the Chamber of Commerce in Valletta. The training programme is organised by Malta Dispute Management (MDM) Ltd and is led by one of the leading family mediators in the world, Lisa Parkinson.
Maltese family mediator Dr William Azzopardi is acting as consultant on this training seminar. Twenty-two participants are taking part. Since the course was oversubscribed, participants had to undergo a selection process before the seminar. Participants hail from various social and legal backgrounds.
In his opening speech Dr Gatt spoke on Government's commitment to institutionalise family mediation by early next year. Dr Gatt referred to his ministry's work to present of a Family Mediation Act in Parliament as well as the setting up of the Family Court.
The Minister of Justice and Local Government regards mediation as a fundamental measure to help couples sort out their differences in an amicable way without having to resort to adversarial methods of conflict resolution.
Dr Gatt emphasised that in a society such as ours, entrenched in a culture of confrontation, mediation should be mandatory to safeguard the dignity and welfare of children as well as their parents'. He augured that MDM will lead this important process in the history of conflict resolution in Malta.
In his introductory note, Dr Tonio Fenech, joint managing director of MDM, announced MDM's merger with the Malta Centre for Mediation Services, directed by Dr James Calleja. MCMS is now MDM's training arm.
Dr Edward de Bono, the creator of lateral thinking, remains chairman of the organisation. Dr Fenech, Dr Austin Sammut and Dr Calleja are the new executive directors.
Both bodies received support from the Malta Institute of Management and the Chamber of Commerce. The seminar was addressed by the new MDM executive directors, who also gave the first set of lectures in the course.
All three directors are CEDR (London) accredited mediators and have wide experience in conflict management and issues related to the resolution of disputes.
In a statement to the media, the directors stressed the importance of mediation as a dispute resolution process, particularly on issues related to family, workplace, commercial and community disputes.
The pooling of resources between MDM and MCMS, together with the involvement of other accredited mediators on the island, is an important step forward in promoting a culture of mediation in Malta. MCMS will now act as the training arm of MDM with Dr Calleja as the executive director of MCMS.
The Family Mediation course will lead to Malta's first batch of family mediators which will be qualified to European standards.
In parallel with the Family Mediation course, next month a Conflict Management and Mediation Skills Certificate course will be organised till next January at the Malta Institute of Management through MCMS.
This foundation course in mediation aims to introduce participants to the skills and techniques required in mediation, assisting prospective professional mediators in choosing an area of specialisation in mediation in which they can obtain international accreditation.