Music above Fighting
Powerful new Mini-Documentary from Masterpeace
MasterPeace wants to inspire everyone to use their talents for peace building and togetherness.
Everyday, thousands of MasterPeacers are working the world to build peace in their own communities.
Their website is the hub of this offline and online movement. (http://www.masterpeace.org/)
Join the effort to start a peace movement:
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1. Creating the MasterPeace Concert
On the International Day of Peace 2014 (21st of September) we will organize the most heartwarming peace concert ever. During this concert, the top artists from 14 of the world’s major conflict areas will perform together. Think about popular artists with ‘power of speech’ and many fans from for instance North and South Sudan, Russia and Chechnya, Pakistan and India, Israel and Palestine, bringing a message of togetherness and positivity, and a message to push back armed conflicts and nuclear arms. The event will be broadcasted internationally.
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2. Creating the MasterPeace WorldBand
One of the other eye-catching moments during the MasterPeace Concert will be the performance of World Leaders and top musicians side-by-side in the MasterPeace WorldBand. Using music where words failed. The proud leaders of the WorldBand are Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu and the Colombian Grammy Award winner Juanes. In the coming years many others will follow. The artists will provide musical lessons to the world leaders and of course the footage of these rehearsals will create worldwide attention for MasterPeace and its goals.
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3. Creating MasterPeace Documentaries
In the week before the International Day of Peace 2014 artists from 14 conflict areas will prepare their performance at the concert in 14 studios, supported by world-renowned artists as artistic mediators. At first some artists will hardly shake hands, but at the end of the week they will be friends or at least contact and dialogue will be established. That’s what making music can bring. This process and the exchange of visions, values, judgments, experiences and dreams will lead to beautiful documentaries, to be broadcasted worldwide and preferably in the conflict areas too.
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4. Organizing a MasterPeace Village
In the week before the International Day of Peace 2014 Cairo – the biggest city of Africa – will be transformed into a Peace Village. The city will host several inspiring peace meetings. One of those meetings may possibly bring together thousands Mayors for Peace to launch - with us – their global campaign to create a world free of nuclear arms by 2020. All over the city hotels, clubs, universities, theatres and museums will host artists, peace-workers, marketers, NGO’s and social entrepreneurs for debates, seminars, workshops to fuel peace building innovation and information exchange. Because minds are like parachutes: they work better if they’re open. -
5. Mobilizing millions of MasterPeacers
Before 2015 we will have reached millions of people with our innovative campaigning including a 2.0 platform, several virals, RTV programs, social media activities, educational programs, MasterPeace Clubs, crowd funding, special songs, art events and an eye catching travel project. Because peace is a verb
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International ADR News from Thomas P. Valenti
Guest Post from Beatrice Raccanello Commenting on The European Mediation Directive in Italy
The Implementation of The European Mediation Directive in Italy
The Italian Mediation Law (Legislative Decree 28/2010) is the result of a larger effort by European Union (“EU”) members to comply with a directive to provide mediation for international disputes. Italy went beyond the mandate of the Directive: the decree provides that an attempt to mediate before accredited providers is a condition precedent to bringing a suit in court in certain subject matters, such as property rights, trusts and estates, loans, disputes arising out of car and boat accidents, medical malpractice, insurance, banking and financial contracts, among others. According to the Italian Ministry of Justice Report of 2012[1], there have been over 60,000 mediations filed in only nine months post implementation.
Mediation allows a state to reduce the burden on the court system and allows its citizens the possibility for obtaining amicable, faster and a less expensive solution to their dispute. A recent European study gathered data on mediation collected from more than 40 experts representing all EU countries as well as findings from the World Bank’s “Doing Business” report[2]. The study compared the time and costs of litigation to mediation in the member states, concluding that mediation does in fact create significant reduction in both factors. For example, in Italy it takes an average of 1,210 days and €15,370 to resolve a dispute, whereas through mediation, it would take only 47 days and cost €4,369. It is important to note that the study took into account the fact that mediation sometimes fails to resolve the dispute, which is then generally followed by litigation in court. Even after considering the burden resulting from the potential failure of mediation, the results are still favorable. The minimum success rate of mediation cases required to create a reduction in time and cost in a country’s legal system such as Italy’s is a mere four percent for time and 28% for costs.
Italy currently has a backlog of 5.4 million pending cases, which are clogging the court system. A citizen’s access to justice is questionable when he/she has to wait an average of eight years for his/her case to be litigated. Mediation could just be the right solution to this very overloaded court system.
The new law has been opposed by Italian attorneys since its enactment, in particular by Italy’s leading organization of lawyers, the Organismo Unitario dell’Avvocatura (“OUA”). In fact, in March 2011, the OUA called for a strike to protest the enactment of the law and the legislation is being challenged in front of the Constitutional Court. The OUA is against mandatory mediation, especially when it does not require the presence of a lawyer. For reasons that I’m sure are apparent to most, they want mediation to be optional for litigants and to require the assistance of lawyers.
Not everybody opposes the new law, however. Some bar associations in larger cities, such as Rome, as well as major industry groups (such as Confindustria, Italy’s federation of employers) are supporters of the mediation law as they can understand that Italy needs a fair and fast court system that guarantees access to justice.
Currently, the litigation over the new mandatory mediation law is still on and the Constitutional Court is expected to strike a decision in the near future. However, fierce opposition by a majority of influential Italian attorneys may have an impact on the court’s decision. The success of this law can only be achieved through cooperation by all interested parties. The best interest of our citizens should be the focus. Italy’s inability to find the right solution to this abrasive dilemma will only maintain a status quo that has proven to be ineffective and inefficient.
[1] Ministry of Justice, Director of Statistics, National Statistics Projection, 21 March 2011 – 31 December 2011.
[2] The Costs of Non ADR, funded by the European Commission as part of the ADR Center Project Lawyers in ADR. The study, The Costs of Non ADR, funded by the European Commission as a part of the ADR Center Project Lawyers in ADR, was conducted using data from the ‘Enforcing Contracts Index’ of the World Bank’s 2011 Doing Business Report as a starting point, and looked specifically at a sample case of contract enforcement while using 200% GNI as a standard indicator across countries.
Beatrice Raccanello is an accomplished attorney with a strong background in international law. She was educated in Italy and received her law degree from Università Commerciale ‘Luigi Bocconi’ in Milan. Beatrice also received an LL.M. from Temple University in the United States. She focuses her practice on international law, general business law, corporate law, and civil litigation. Beatrice is licensed to practice in New York. She is fluent in Italian and English, as well as being conversant in Spanish and French. (http://linkd.in/IoD6X3)
NLIU Khaitan&Co INADR Law School Mediation Tournament
War/No More Trouble | Playing for Change | Song Around The World
