User:Inter/Mediation policy

The Mediation policy acts as a guideline for the workings of the Mediation Committee. These policies are subject to amendment.

Scope
The Mediators reserve the right to comment on cases at their discretion. The following are general guidelines which will apply to most cases.


 * 1) The Mediators will hear the cases brought before them and recommend appropriate action. This may include recommending that the case should first be tried solved through other means if this has not been tried or there is no evidence of this.
 * 2) Where a dispute has gone directly to the Arbitration Committee, but the ArbCom rejects the case on the premise that it should be tried through other means, such as the Mediation Committee, the Arbitrators may refer the dispute to the Mediation Committee if it believes Mediation is likely to help.
 * 3) The Mediators will primarily mediate and/or comment on content disputes/interpersonal disputes derived from content disputes.
 * 4) The Mediators will not hear disputes where they have been specifically requested not to Mediate. In such cases, the matter should be taken to the Arbitration Committee.
 * 5) The Mediation Committee does not report to anyone, but may forward cases to the Arbitration Committee if it is deemed that the Mediation is unsuccessful, or one (or both) parties reject Mediation.

Requests
The Mediation Committee accepts requests for MEdiation from anyone, and will recommend ways to Mediate and/or provide a Mediator. The committee may request evidence to indicate whether earlier steps in the dispute resulution process have been attempted and make their recommendations based on this. Cases presented to the Committee will be generally listed for 7 days. If there are no Mediators offering to take the case the case will be closed. If the case is accepted by a Mediator but Mediation is unsuccessful, the case will be either forwarded to the ArbCom by request of the parties involved, on the Mediation Committee's request, or it will be closed.

Who takes part?
All Mediators reserve the right to comment on any particular case. If a Mediator believes they have a conflict of interest in a case, they will not be eligible to accept that case. It will be handled by somebody else on the Committee. Users who believe Mediators have a conflict of interest should post an appropriate statement under Commentaries. Due to the absolutely necessity of neutralness, Mediators who have had any dealings with the parties involved in a case in the past may not be eligible to Mediate. This is up to the discretion of the parties involved.

Commentary
Participants involved in requests to the Committee will present their cases and evidence/commentary as directed on a sub-page of the case page, itself a sub-page of requests for mediation, titled as "[Username]" or "[UsernameA] v. [UsernameB]" or the like, at the discretion of the Mediator who takes the case. Disputants shall be defined as the user or users named in the case. When or if a Mediator takes the case, a notice will be placed in a designated section on the case page to this effect. After a case has been accepted by a Mediator, the discussion may move elsewhere such as article talk pages.

Authority
The Mediation Committee may enforce a certain authority in special circumstances. If the two parties in a dispute comes to an agreement and/or consensus about a change in an article or agree on the general path the article is taking, they can voluntarily bind themselves to a promise of sticking to this chosen path. If they do not, the Mediation Committee may step in and impose. The punishment will be determined by the mediator in charge of the case and will be presented to the committee for commentary. This happens on the case page. The case will be reopened and a decree will be made.

Steps taken
This process is two-fold. During Mediation, the following points are helpful to remember:


 * 1) Articles are reverted to their pre-dispute contents and are closed to any editing while mediation proceeds.  Boilerplate text is placed at the top of the article and the page is protected.
 * 2) Mediators seek common ground among the disputants and try to clear up misunderstandings.
 * 3) Mediators make a special effort to consider the merits of the question involved without regard to the background or editing history of the disputants.
 * 4) Mediators set the pace to balance the benefits of "cooling off" with the goal of reasonably rapid closure.  Most mediation efforts should be completed in a matter of 3-10 days.
 * 5) Mediators may propose solutions, which may include specific article text.
 * 6) The mediator may update the article with any changes that both disputants accept.
 * 7) When consensus is reached, the fact of article mediation and the agreement reached is documented on the article's talk page.
 * 8) The article is reopened to editing once mediation is complete

If Mediation is successful:


 * Once disputants make an agreement, they are expected to follow it. If they do not, the Mediation Committee may impose on the request of the Mediator in charge of the case.

If Mediation fails:


 * The case will be closed. See requests.

For procedures for Mediation, see Mediation.