Johanna Hawari Bourjeily: promoting a culture of mediation in Lebanon is not without its challenges

Mediation plays a crucial role in conflict resolution, providing a space for dialogue and understanding that fosters peace and reconciliation. In a world where social and political tensions are omnipresent, this tool is becoming indispensable for building and restoring links. It is in this context that Johanna Hawari Bourjeily, founder and director of the Centre Professionnel de Médiation at the Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth, a long-standing AUF partner, is passionately committed. She shares her experience and vision of mediation, and illustrates how mediation can transform lives and strengthen the social fabric in a country in search of peace.

Testimony of Johanna Hawari Bourjeily, who is also President of "Médiateurs Sans Frontières Liban" and a member of the Mediation Commission of the AUF Middle East Regional Conference of Rectors.

- What is the greatest challenge you face in the field of mediation today, and how is the Professional Mediation Center responding to it?
First of all, I'd like to define mediation, which is an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) process involving a mediator, a neutral and impartial third party. The mediator's role is to guide the parties in disagreement in the search for a satisfactory solution to their differences. In this sense, this rapid, confidential, informal and inexpensive process differs from legal proceedings and arbitration.
The culture of mediation is a genuine tool for pacification and reconciliation, and promoting it in the cultural and communal mosaic that is Lebanon presents many challenges, compounded by the economic, social and political crises, and against a backdrop of regional wars.
The Professional Mediation Center (CPM) at Saint-Joseph University in Beirut regularly adapts and readjusts its interventions and actions to the reality on the ground.
For example, in response to the economic crisis, the CPM organizes free awareness-raising and mediation training sessions for members of associations and NGOs. Likewise, professional mediators volunteer their time to help disadvantaged populations deal with their problems.
In addition, during the recent war, the CPM set up listening and facilitation workshops at certain reception centers for displaced persons. The aim of these workshops was to prevent and manage tensions and thus preserve social coexistence.

- How would you assess the CPM - AUF partnership?
The partnership between the CPM and the AUF (Middle East regional office) began in 2016. It takes concrete form through the organization of events (conferences, mediation competitions) and the setting up of workshops to raise awareness and provide training in mediation and positive communication at universities belonging to the AUF network in Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Iraq, Syria and Palestine.
These training courses are aimed at students, administrative staff and teaching staff attached to partner universities.
Their aim is not only to pass on know-how, techniques and tools, but also to train people in how to behave. In other words, to support participants in acquiring an assertive and benevolent posture, strengthening their emotional, communication and relational skills, and thus enabling them to play a role in building peaceful civil societies, starting from the campuses.
The partnership between the CPM and the AUF is solid and long-lasting, having been built on shared humanist values: respect for the culture of our respective institutions, solidarity, flexibility and trust.
What also unites the CPM and the AUF is the desire to promote the principles of La Francophonie, such as dialogue between cultures, peace education and gender equality.

- Can you share a striking anecdote in which mediation made a real difference to a person or a community?
In the aftermath of the July 2006 war, the CPM, in collaboration with the Association Médiateurs sans Frontières and the Lebanese Social Movement, set up a project involving 75 young people aged 14 to 20 from different faiths and regions.
In particular, I remember two groups of young people from neighboring villages in southern Lebanon who refused to talk or meet because of their political and community differences.
As a first step, our work as mediators consisted in creating neutral and confidential spaces for dialogue and listening, in order to encourage them to express their feelings, anxieties and apprehensions, and secondly, to help them reach out to each other without judgment or preconceived ideas.
At the end of this project, these young people, who had demonized each other without even having met, ended up forging a beautiful friendship based on mutual understanding, constructive dialogue and respect for difference.
This awareness of their real desires, distinct from those of their families and communities, gave them self-confidence and, consequently, enabled them to open up to others. From then on, they began to find common behaviors and similar aspirations, such as belonging to the same country and nation.

- What advice would you give to someone wishing to embark on a career in mediation?
While it's true that mediation has existed informally and traditionally for centuries, it became institutionalized around 1970 in Western countries. It has gradually become an institutional process governed by regulations and a code of ethics and deontology. In Lebanon, the CPM is the first mediation center to have set up a professional training program to train mediators competent to practice mediation in various fields: social, family, commercial, intercultural, community, etc. Consequently, the advice I would give to anyone wishing to become a mediator is, of course, to follow a diploma course. During this training, the person will acquire know-how, tools and techniques such as active and empathic listening, non-violent communication, facilitation, etc., but also quality interpersonal skills for themselves and others. For there can be no outer peace without inner peace. In this sense, I see mediation as a mission, and the mediator as a peacemaker who works with people and for people. And if it's true that it takes heroes to make war, I'd like to say that it takes human beings to make peace.

Source: www.auf.org/