Family Mediation in Spain, 10 years after the congress of Valencia in 1999

Abstract

In April, 1999, the I Congress of Family Mediation organized by the Associació d’Operadors Familiars i Socials took place in Valencia. It was the starting point of the development of family mediation in Spain. Right after this congress, services of family mediation were created in most regions of Spain and both private and public educational programs. On the other hand, several regional governments initiated legislative processes, in way that 10 years later most of parliaments had approved their own family mediation laws. Mostly, these laws were characterized for covering the  needs of the administrations, rather than aiding the needs of the potential users or the statuary agreements derived from the experiences of other countries which have contributed to the family mediation philosophy.  However, family mediation has not reached the expected implementation, partly because the chances given to the users were focused on divorce mediation. The diverse operators of justice are, paradoxically, not using  them, further more the specific laws have not supposed an added value for their development in Spain. The fact that a review process of the mediation laws have begun confirms this statements.