The United Nations Department of Political Affairs (UN DPA) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have produced a guide for mediators using the example of eight different international conflicts over natural resources. The guide summarizes the following key messages:
- The context in which a conflict exists is very important.
- Successful mediation requires a clear but differentiated allocation of players and interests.
- All parties must be guaranteed equal access to impartial scientific and technical information about the resource in dispute.
- The stakeholders who are to participate in mediation must be carefully identified and selected.
- Mediators should support the interest groups in identifying common benefits and giving up win-lose positions in the process.
- Mediators are supposed to use mediation techniques to resolve deadlocked negotiations and hardened positions.
- Negotiations on natural resources are not only designed to solve a problem immediately, but also lay the foundation for future questions of resource distribution.
The guide “Natural Resources and Conflict – A Guide for Mediation Practitioners” can be found here.
Back in September 2012, the UN published “Guidance for Effective Mediation“, which is well worth reading. On 26 pages, the guide compiles checklists for mediators in conflicts in an international context.
