This article is an excerpt of a paper I wrote a few years ago in which I explored a case study on the wave of Chinese immigrants in Vancouver in the 1990s and analyzed the role of communication in the case study. Hong Kong was handed over to Great Britain on August 29, 1842 during the First Opium War (1839-1942) under the Treaty of Nanking, which subsequently ended the war between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Qing Dynasty of China;1the Treaty was to expire in 1997. With the political uncertainties as Hong Kong was heading […]
Continue Reading
We live in a time of promotion and active use of social norms that ensure gender equality as well as respect of human rights. At the international level, gender equality issues as well as human rights are regulated by Universal Declaration of Human Rights . International Law and Gender Equality Non – Discrimination Legislation, Requirements and Good Practices is just one of the documents regulating the issues that will be discussed at the international level. International institutions such as the United Nations are examples of good practices of equal representation of both sexes in senior management positions as well as equal […]
Continue Reading
Mediation is one of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). It is voluntary and non-binding on the parties in dispute. The mediator targets to take an active role in order to facilitate a settlement that includes all participants necessities. From what I learned, there are three elements that play a significant role people’s acceptance towards mediation, namely: dignity and trust. The mediator carries out a number of different functions during the process, for example: establishing a framework for cooperative decision making, promoting constructive communication, providing appropriate evaluations, empowering the parties, and ensuring a minimum level of process and outcome fairness (Boulle and Kelly, […]
Continue Reading
There are, of course, many responses to conflict. Two common alternatives to the processes outlined in this note are avoidance, a refusal to acknowledge or engage in the problem; and unilateral decision-making, in which one of the disputants requests (or allows) a third party to independently decide on an outcome to the dispute without a formal process. In practice, parties in conflict will frequently draw from components of all three procedures— some discussion of interests, some reliance on rights, and some attempts to use power. The ways people process or resolve disputes or attempt to make decisions are, consensual, adjudicative […]
Continue Reading
The mediators are a central figure in the mediation process. Although the mediator is theoretically held out to be impartial, in practice, this is very difficult to sustain. The term impartial has been summed up as “the quality of being principled enough to remain equally committed to the legitimate interests of all parties”. The mediator use to listen to all the parties and consciously or subconsciously begins to assess, judge, and evaluate the information. This automatic thought process also shapes and affects the mediator’s reactions, suggestions, proposals, and strategies, which in turn influences the outcome of the mediation and potentially […]
Continue Reading
The population of Bangladesh is largely homogeneous – about 99 percent speak Bengali, the country’s state language, and almost 90 percent are Muslims (Caf Dowlah, 2013). As a result, more than 45 ethnic minorities represent less than 2 percent of the total population. The constitution of Bangladesh has the principle of homogeneity ( Article 9) and Banglali nationalism. Ethnic minorities living in Bangladesh have been struggling to have their identity recognized by the state even since independence in 1971. Ethnic minorities can be categorized into two groups: plains land ethnic minorities and those in the Chittagong Hill Tracts regarded as […]
Continue Reading
The Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) has different forms. Mediation is one of these and it is a dialogue process designed to capture the parties’ insights, imagination, and ideas and facilitate the dialogue to come to a solution of dispute. Alternatively, the conflict may be resolved by one disputant choosing to abandon the claim or, alternatively, a by his or her opponent’s choice to allow it. There is considerable debate in the field of conflict resolution about these different approaches and styles of mediation and different approaches which can be applied to resolve disputes in the context of mediation. There are […]
Continue Reading
Conflicts are a considerable part of human relationships and thus cannot and should not always be avoided. However, we are able to choose how we address them and that is when mediation comes into the picture. As part of our everyday lives, conflicts can open new possibilities or they can represent an onerous challenge. Moreover, conflicts can also be very intimate and when dealing with them or their aftermath we are often exposed and vulnerable and so the way we choose to address our conflicts is very important. Consequentially, whoever is trusted with resolution or management of the conflict, may […]
Continue Reading
CWho we are as human beings is in a great way influenced by where or what kind of a social environment, we live in. An important part of our social environment are relationships, the world of human interaction and communication. Relationships between people shape our world for better or for worse. A vital ingredient of this world are also conflicts. They may represent a threat or an opportunity. How we tackle such ‘opportunities’ is very important for the quality of our lifetime spent on this planet. If we look at international relations, based on sovereign nation states and international organizations, […]
Continue Reading
Our world is filled with many problems including conflict that demand our attention and collaboration. Conflict, or more specifically, interpersonal conflict, is a fact of life, and particularly of organizational life. One of the most common difficulties is conflict—with friends and co-workers, with children or parents, with a spouse, with people who hold opinions different from each other. However, conflict can also arise in relationships and situations outside work. Interpersonal conflict has been defined as: “An expressed struggle between at least two interdependent parties who perceive incompatible goals, scarce resources, and interference from the other party in achieving their goals”. […]
Continue Reading
In the existing realist world today, it is implicitly understood that conflicts, wherever they break out, should at the outset be addressed through domestic state apparatus through political reform, settlements, elections among other methods. When domestic mechanisms fall short, such a scenario calls for action on part of the international community to assist conflicting parties find peaceful means of coming about to an agreement. There are, however, barriers to conflict resolution owing to the forces of motion and relationships between nations and non-state actors. This article explores the broad categories of barriers to conflict resolution, followed by an attempt to […]
Continue Reading
“Home life ceases to be free and beautiful as soon as it is founded on borrowing and debt” Henrik Ibsen. As a Mediator and an Arbitration Counsel in Finance and Banking for the last 15 years in India, I have noticed that DEBT often becomes a normal part of life that we don’t give much importance, and the warning signals are ignored. DEBT IS A BURDEN, and it makes the individual, families and a clan sad, angry, scared, depressed and disappointed. Debt keeps one enslaved to a bank or a financial institution or to the state. Debt and stress are […]
Continue Reading
Conflict exists all over the world and even in its remotest corners. Whenever people get together, conflict will occur in their private or professional lives. Individuals generally are able to simply walk away from a person or from several persons whenever a conflict issue raises. But what should we do if it happens to exist in a business context? Can we just leave our colleagues, co-workers or counterparts in order to get rid of conflict? My answer is absolutely no. Basically we may say that the way you see a conflict, depends of your own view point, experiences and / […]
Continue Reading
While criminal law is the body of law that deals with crime and the legal punishment of criminal offenses, civil law deals with the disputes between individuals, organizations, or between the two, in which compensation is awarded to the victim. All civil proceedings in Bangladesh are regulated under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, unless otherwise excluded. The only one exception to the Section 89A(1), which provides that except in a suit under the Artha Rin Adalat Ain, 1990 (Bank loan recovery act). The Judicial system takes about 20to 30 years to dismiss a suit finally. To recover from this […]
Continue Reading
The two countries Greece and the Republic of North Macedonia had a conflict since the second country declared its independence under the name of Macedonia in 1991. The core of the dispute is about the name of one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia because there is a confusion between the name of the country and the historic region of the neighbouring country of Greece which has the same name[1]. The Republic of North Macedonia became a member of the United Nations (UN) in 1993, but it was admitted under the notion: the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. […]
Continue Reading
Sudan has all the characteristics of an intractable conflict. The roots of the problem run deep into the Sudanese society, heavily influenced by cultural factors, such as religion, ethnicity, ideology, and economics. In this paper, I will describe the major characteristics of this conflict, and use it as a base to suggest and discuss a few recommendations about how an international neutral could go about building bridges among the parties in dispute, especially at the community level. Specifically, I will discuss and comment on Arai’s concept of dialoguing with genuine curiosity, the starting points discussed by LeBaron and Pillay, the […]
Continue Reading
White privilege is perpetuated in mediation because racism in the United States is healthy and strong. Racism permeates all aspects of society. Neither the many laws that have been passed to eradicate its effects, nor sustained efforts to educate the population, have weakened its negative influence. White privilege is a consequence of racism, which is pervasive in all areas of society, although the presence of white privilege sometimes is invisible. Mediation, with all its many good goals and characteristics, is not free from the influence of white privilege because, in most instances, this influence occurs unconsciously or subconsciously. Mediation is […]
Continue Reading
The concept of legal pluralism refers to a situation of coexistence of several legal systems. It means the simultaneous existence of a formal legal system of statutory laws with customary principles or informal rules. Different laws deal with different matters, for example, formal laws are meant to regulate commercial, criminal or constitutional aspects of human life, while civil and personal matters are governed by the local customary laws or religious laws. The religious personal laws of Bangladesh’s various religious communities govern matters within the private sphere, including marriage, divorce, custody, inheritance and so on. Muslim marriage and sharing of paternal […]
Continue Reading
Elder and Adult Care Mediation: The New Horizon in Family Practice With the population aging at an unprecedented rate, families are more frequently encountering strained situations about how to best care for a loved one who no longer is able to drive, live alone, requires assistance with daily living, or requires a new level of medical care. Even in the best of families, communication can shut down or never open up to quality decision-making. “My brother has been handling mom’s money the past two years, but my sisters and I think that he is using mom’s money for his benefit. […]
Continue Reading
The profession of business is interdependent of many stakeholders. Business enterprises are part of manufacturing or creating products and services. This is a kind of relay race. The concept of supply chain management developed from specialization of job of making something which again raw materials of other business and finally creating a good or service to deliver to consumer for consumption. Businesses are dependent on upstream as source of raw material and dependent on buyer at downstream market. The relationship is not for one day or cannot develop over night. The success of one business is part of a supply […]
Continue Reading