During the summer of 1991, the Center sent a team of trainers
to conduct a mediation training for law students at the Universidad
Nacional Autunoma de Nicarague (UNAN) in Leon. Training materials
were created in Spanish and role plays adapted to the needs of
Nicaraguans.
The need for a mediation initiative in Nicaragua became clear
when the civil war ended in 1989 and confusion over property rights
arose frequently. People who had abandoned property during the
war began returning to claim their land that had been awarded
to new owners through the country's land reform. The land disputes
were very heated and the long delays in an underfinanced legal
system required an alternative method to handle conflicts before
violence erupted.
In August 1992, the Center for Dispute Resolution and the Institute
for International Legal Education, together with the UNAN, hosted
an international conference for North, South, and Central American
legal scholars, government officials, and policymakers. The conference
provided a forum in which participants could discuss the role
of property in a participatory democracy and debate policy options
for the peaceful resolution of agrarian conflicts.
In May of 1994, Project Director Lytton and Nicaraguan mediators
of the Mediation in Nicaragua Project established the Centro de
Mediaciun y Resoluciun de Conflictos at the UNAN. Mediators help
citizens resolve disputes involving land reform, divorce, and
other conflicts that have had trouble reaching the legal system
since the country's civil war ended. The mediation center serves
as a community resource and is a regular part of legal training
in the law school.
The Centro's director coordinates trainings and services offered
by over one hundred mediators who work as judges, attorneys, civil
servants, social workers and church pastors. The Centro continues
to disseminate information about mediation and its uses by providing
workshops and presentations throughout the country. Efforts are
also focused on including mediation in a comprehensive property
law under consideration in the Nicaraguan National Assembly.
