This section contains UN guidance material for setting up and managing mediation initiatives. The material provides practitioners with practical advice and options in addressing some of the key challenges in mediation to maximize the chances for success.
July, 2012 | Author: United Nations
The Secretary General developed the United Nations Guidance for Effective Mediation in response to a request from the General Assembly (A/RES/65/283). The Guidance identifies a number of key fundamentals that should be considered in mediation processes: preparedness; consent; impartiality; inclusivity; national ownership; international law and normative frameworks; coherence; coordination and complementarity of the mediation effort; and quality peace agreements. The Guidance explains each fundamental, outlines some potential challenges and dilemmas facing mediators and offers some guidance.
*The Department of Political Affairs is disseminating the document widely and welcomes, among other steps, its translation into languages other than the six official languages of the United Nations. Some Member States have already taken the initiative of translating the Guidance in Finnish, Slovene and in Turkish.
March, 2017 | Author: United Nations Department of Political Affairs
This UN DPA guidance seeks to inform mediators and their teams, as well as conflict parties, about the principles and strategies for the effective inclusion of women, as well as a gendered perspective, in mediation processes. The guidance addresses mediation preparation, process design, and substantive issues including security arrangements, participation, constitutions, language and the implementation of peace agreements through a gender lens.
September, 2022 | Author: United Nations Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs
The Guidance is designed to support United Nations senior leader- ship and staff, mediators, and facilitators within and outside the UN, along with their teams, conflict parties, representatives of States and regional organizations, national and international non-governmen- tal organizations, women’s groups and other stakeholders in peace processes.
September, 2022 | Author: United Nations Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs
Climate change effects are felt in every corner of the world and can affect conflicts in different ways. They can be a source of conflict, a multiplier of existing risks, or an opportunity for manipulation by conflict parties. Building on DPPA’s broader efforts to address the complex linkages between climate, peace and security, this note aims to provide guidance to mediation practitioners operating in climate exposed and fragile contexts. It explores the opportunities and challenges of incorporating climate change considerations into peace processes and presents concrete measures to be taken.
September, 2022 | Author: United Nations (Mediation Support Unit, Policy and Mediation Division)
This Practice Note outlines circumstances under which more direct involvement with local conflicts and mediation processes might be strategically relevant for United Nations mediators working on national political processes.
February, 2015 | Author: United Nations Department of Political Affairs and United Nations Environment Programme
The guide aims to inform mediators and stakeholders addressing conflicts over natural resources - whether those disagreements are violent, have the potential to turn violent, or are part of a larger political struggle, including within a peace process. It draws on the field experiences of mediators and mediation experts.
January, 2012 | Author: United Nations (Department of Political Affairs)
The United Nations requires its mediators to address conflict-related sexual violence. This guidance offers mediators and their teams principles and strategies for including this critical peacebuilding and security concern in ceasefire and peace agreements.
September, 2011 | Author: United Nations (Department of Political Affairs)
The DPA Mediation Start-up Guidelines seek to provide guidance to managers, desk officers and field staff of the UN Department of Political Affairs (DPA) on the start-up and establishment of mediation initiatives led, co-led or supported by the United Nations. Their purpose is to consolidate DPA’s institutional knowledge on strategy development, planning, support and coordination aspects of mediation initiatives.
June, 2012 | Author: United Nations (Department of Political Affairs)
The Special political missions (SPMs) Start-up Guide provides essential information and guidance on the substantive and administrative tasks that need to be carried out to establish a field-based SPM, such as mission planning, communication, budget processes, human resources, logistics, security and legal issues. It is an essential document for all DPA staff, and for DPA desk officers and senior managers tasked to support the establishment of an SPM in particular.
June, 2010 | Author: United Nations (UN Institute for Training and Research, Department of Political Affairs)
The main purpose of this manual is to familiarize new UN mediators with the range of skills used by their predecessors to carry out third-party mediation. The manual describes the current context in which UN mediation and “good offices” is carried out, offers advice and lessons from previous representatives and envoys, and suggests how the UN’s Mediation Support Unit can help to support the work of UN mediators. The manual is based on the UNITAR Programme for Briefing and Debriefing Special and Personal Representatives of the Secretary-General, which involved extensive interviews with UN representatives and envoys to determine lessons learned and best practices from their work.
Tailored guidance is also frequently developed by the Mediation Support Unit (MSU) in the Department of Political Affairs (DPA) in response to a specific request from the field, often involving comparative case analysis. Such material is not generally made available beyond the requesting entity.
November, 2022 | Author: United Nations Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs
The world is facing unprecedented risks from climate change. Droughts, erratic rainfall, and extreme weather events affect people, livelihoods, and economies across the world.
November, 2022 | Author: United Nations Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs
This paper captures key lessons learned in the author's two-year secondment to the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) Policy and Mediation Division, Mediation Support Unit, during which the author supported constitution-making processes and provided advice on handling constitutional issues.
September, 2022 | Author: United Nations (Mediation Support Unit, Policy and Mediation Division)
This Practice Note outlines circumstances under which more direct involvement with local conflicts and mediation processes might be strategically relevant for United Nations mediators working on national political processes.
September, 2022 | Author: United Nations Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs
Climate change effects are felt in every corner of the world and can affect conflicts in different ways. They can be a source of conflict, a multiplier of existing risks, or an opportunity for manipulation by conflict parties. Building on DPPA’s broader efforts to address the complex linkages between climate, peace and security, this note aims to provide guidance to mediation practitioners operating in climate exposed and fragile contexts. It explores the opportunities and challenges of incorporating climate change considerations into peace processes and presents concrete measures to be taken.
September, 2022 | Author: United Nations Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs
The Guidance is designed to support United Nations senior leader- ship and staff, mediators, and facilitators within and outside the UN, along with their teams, conflict parties, representatives of States and regional organizations, national and international non-governmen- tal organizations, women’s groups and other stakeholders in peace processes.
October, 2021
This report is a contribution to ongoing efforts in the United Nations Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) to address the impact of climate change on mediation and preventive diplomacy. It was commissioned by DPPA with support from the Government of the Republic of France and prepared by Alex Grzybowski and Chanda Hunnie of Pacific Resolutions. Views expressed in the report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of DPPA.
November, 2020 | Author: United Nations (Mediation Support Unit, Policy and Mediation Division)
This publication dives into some of the challenges and opportunities presented by UN support to local level mediation and dialogue processes, and discusses its strategic relevance to the Organization’s overall peacemaking efforts.
November, 2020 | Author: United Nations Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (Mediation Support Unit, Policy and Mediation Division) and the Berghof Foundation
The Primer identifies the challenges and opportunities at the nexus of peace processes and constitutions and constitution making, including lessons learned, policy options and their implications for sustaining peace.
September, 2020 | Author: United Nations
June, 2020 | Author: United Nations
This Handbook is intended to serve as a practical guide to support the implementation of the CRSV mandate by United Nations Field Missions, including Peacekeeping Operations and Special Political Missions. It serves both as a guidance for civilians, military, and police personnel deployed to United Nations Field Missions and as a pre-deployment orientation tool for future Mission personnel.
June, 2020 | Author: United Nations (Mediation Support Unit, Policy & Mediation Division)
On 23 March 2020, Secretary-General António Guterres issued an appeal for an immediate global ceasefire to help create conditions for the delivery of lifesaving aid, reinforce diplomatic action and bring hope to places that are among the most vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic. As of 23 June 2020, the Secretary-General's call had received support from 179 Member States and one non-member observer State, as well as a range of regional organizations and international and local civil society actors. Some of these 179 Member States supported the call only in specific conflcit contexts or while stressing the right to continue with counter-terrorism operations. Meanwhile, a number of conflict parties responsed to the call by announcing unilateral ceasefires. This note analyses the response and discusses the opportunities and challenges presented by the Secretary-General's appeal.
February, 2015 | Author: United Nations Department of Political Affairs and United Nations Environment Programme
The guide aims to inform mediators and stakeholders addressing conflicts over natural resources — whether those disagreements are violent, have the potential to turn violent, or are part of a larger political struggle, including within a peace process. It draws on the field experiences of mediators and mediation experts. It also features lessons learned from UNEP’s work on environmental diplomacy in different conflict affected countries, with a particular focus on how to use impartial technical knowledge to equalize stakeholder information in a mediation process. Helping to identify paths towards resolution through mediation and third-party involvement, the Guide can be applied for localized and transboundary conflicts, as well as natural resource disputes that arise in the context of broader peace negotiations.
July, 2012 | Author: United Nations
Prepared in response to the request of the General Assembly and in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations, the Guidance aims to inform the design and management of mediation processes. It is intended as a resource for mediators, States and other actors supporting mediation efforts but is also relevant for conflict parties, civil society and other stakeholders.
June, 2012 | Author: United Nations (Department of Political Affairs)
The Special political missions (SPMs) Start-up Guide provides essential information and guidance on the substantive and administrative tasks that need to be carried out to establish a field-based SPM, such as mission planning, communication, budget processes, human resources, logistics, security and legal issues. It is an essential document for all DPA staff, and for DPA desk officers and senior managers tasked to support the establishment of an SPM in particular.
January, 2012 | Author: United Nations (Department of Political Affairs)
The United Nations requires its mediators to address conflict-related sexual violence. This guidance offers mediators and their teams principles and strategies for including this critical peacebuilding and security concern in ceasefire and peace agreements.
September, 2011 | Author: United Nations (Department of Political Affairs)
The DPA Mediation Start-up Guidelines seek to provide guidance to managers, desk officers and field staff of the UN Department of Political Affairs (DPA) on the start-up and establishment of mediation initiatives led, co-led or supported by the United Nations. Their purpose is to consolidate DPA’s institutional knowledge on strategy development, planning, support and coordination aspects of mediation initiatives.
June, 2010 | Author: United Nations (UN Institute for Training and Research, Department of Political Affairs)
The main purpose of this manual is to familiarize new UN mediators with the range of skills used by their predecessors to carry out third-party mediation. The manual describes the current context in which UN mediation and “good offices” is carried out, offers advice and lessons from previous representatives and envoys, and suggests how the UN’s Mediation Support Unit can help to support the work of UN mediators. The manual is based on the UNITAR Programme for Briefing and Debriefing Special and Personal Representatives of the Secretary-General, which involved extensive interviews with UN representatives and envoys to determine lessons learned and best practices from their work.
