Lawyers, professors, human resources directors, actors involved in associative life, engineers, employees, bank officials, health stakeholders, Internal Security Forces officers: the mediators of tomorrow come from various professional backgrounds. These 54 new graduates of the Professional Mediation Center celebrated the start of a new professional adventure during a ceremony on 24 October 2018.

Ms. Johanna Hawari-Bourjeily, Director of the USJ Professional Mediation Center (CPM), delivered a speech in which she invited the graduates to practice mediation in their respective fields, be they working in the health sector, in communications, arts, education, the law, business, human resources, etc.

“Lawyers: there is an entire world of opportunity that has opened before you, especially with the vote on judicial mediation a few weeks ago. The CPM spearheaded this endeavor with the tabling of the first bill in 2009. Internal Security Forces: 6 officers graduated in mediation this year, and there are another 6 officers in training. I am sure that your actions and interventions will help ease relations and build trust with citizens. Actors in education: I invite you to join our teams that actively work in the 28 public and private partner CPM schools in Lebanon and even in Saudi Arabia this year, in the Lycée Français de Djeddah.”

“We are also very proud to have renewed our partnership with the Union of Bank Employees in Lebanon, thanks to which 3 members were trained in 2 years and can now work within the mediation unit created this year with CPM,” she added.

Speaking in turn, Prof. Salim Daccache, s.j., Rector of USJ, first congratulated the graduates before saying, “the Professional Mediation Center, since its establishment as a center for teaching and learning, has not ceased to train and teach these humanist heroes who shine by what they do, by undertaking mediation and negotiation in the most difficult of situations.”

The CPM is shining, he continued to say. How can we forget the law recently passed by Lebanese Parliament on judicial mediation, a necessary and official door on which foreign and even local companies can rely to resolve conflicts and problems of all kinds, so as not to slip into expensive and endless lawsuits and legal proceedings. I have personally witnessed how much the CPM and its leaders campaigned for this law to become reality. How could we not mention the recent agreement and partnership with the UNDP within the framework of the “Community, security and access to justice” project, whose aim, among others, is to train municipal police officers in amicable conflict management and communication techniques and to integrate mediation training into the Internal Security Forces Training Institute.

Pr Daccache also brought up another partnership that has just been signed with the Pastoral Office of Marriage and Family in the Maronite Patriarchate of Bkerke, “a sign that mediation, as conceived by the CPM, is resonating strongly within religious centers seeking to save the institution of marriage at a time where couples are breaking up for reasons mundane as well as deep.”

He concluded, “It is through you, recent and soon-to-be graduates, that this sympathetic and intelligent army working for peace and citizenship helps the CPM grow!”

Asking herself the question, “What did we learn at the CPM this year?”, student Marie-Claude Abou Fadel, of the 11th CPM graduating class, responded, “We learned that conflict is not inevitable. That separation is not always the solution. That nonviolence is not weakness, that words are windows, that dialogue is always possible. We learned that even silence can speak volumes and replace words that carry no weight.”

Lastly, Noura Assaf, a student of the 7th CPM Tripoli graduating class said, “We have learned how to listen to others objectively, how to encourage them to express their feelings, how to approach them with kindness and resume a dialogue that seemed impossible. This is what a good mediator can do. We have also learned how to better manage our internal conflicts and have been particularly sensitized by the principles of nonviolent communication, which we very much hope will one day be included in school curricula.”