Binational Projects – Germany & Poland

MiKK originated from a pilot project on mediation in Franco-German family conflicts. Continuing this tradition, we attach great importance to exchange and close cooperation between mediators, lawyers, judges, academics and institutions across national borders.

Our international projects have given rise to an extensive network and rich experience. They thus contribute significantly to the further development and promotion of mediation in cross-border family conflicts at various levels.

Activities & Projects

2018-2021

AMICABLE Project (EC co-financed):

Development of Best Practice Tools, Enforceability and Recognition of Mediated Family Agreements (2018-2021)

In this EC project, developed by MiKK, MiKK is working with project partners from 4 EU countries, Germany, Poland, Spain and Italy, to develop Best Practice Tools and to introduce the mediation modell (MiKK mediaotrs in court), which is practised in Germany in Child Abduction cases under the Hague Convention: www.amicable-eu.org

The Polish Project Partner is the University of Wrocław led by the legal experts Professor Magdalena Tabernacka & Professor Agnieszka Frackowiak-Adamska, who – as part of the AMICABLE project – are developing a Best Practice Tool in English and Polish for the Recognition and Enforceability of Polish Mediated Agreements in the EU.

The Polish Best Practice Tool was presented at the AMICABLE Polish National Seminar (in Polish/English) in Online (due to Covid) on 18-19 March 2021 and was tried out in workshops. All Polish Judges, Family Lawyers and Mediators were welcome to attend this event.

2019

German-Polish Judges Meeting, 11-13 December 2019, Königs-Wusterhausen

Expert discussions on mediation in the context of the 1980 Hague Convention on Child Abduction (Hague Convention)

Organizer: Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (BMJV)

Polish and German Hague convention judges, representatives of both Central Authorities, MiKK and the ISD met on 11th-13th December 2019 for expert discussions and an intensive exchange of views at the invitation of the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (BMJV). Cross-border mediation in German-Polish child abduction cases was a core topic of this bi-lateral exchange. MiKK, represented by Ischtar Khalaf-Newsome (on behalf of Magdalena Janczuk), spoke about the MiKK co-mediation model as well as on selected anonymized case studies of the MiKK Advisory Service.

Interview Deutsche Welle with Magdalena Jańczuk, MiKK, on German-Polish cases from MiKK practice,  17 March 2019

Listen to an interview (in Polish) with Magdalena Jańczuk on child abduction cases with a German-Polish connection.

Listen: Porwania dzieci. Co może mediacja?

2018

International Conference: Mediation as a method for resolving bi-national family disputes, 7 June 2018, Slubice, Poland

The German-Polish Mediation Center Slubice, Poland, invited experts from Germany and abroad to an international conference on the topic “Mediation as a Method of Resolving Bi-national Disputes”. From MiKK’s side, Magdalena Jańczuk spoke on the topic of “Special Features of Mediation with a Cross-border Character” as well as in a co-presentation with MiKK mediator Konrad Sobczyk on “The Mediation Practice in Cases of International Child Abduction”. MiKK board member Prof. Volker Raddatz gave a keynote speech on the topic “Intercultural Mediation”.

You can find the programme here.

2017

Polish-German Symposium – Mediation in International Child Abduction Conflicts, Warsaw, 26 – 27 October 2017 

Organized by MiKK with the support of the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (BMJV) and the Polish Ministry of Justice.

In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Wroclaw Declaration on Bi-national Child Mediation (2007), the Polish Ministry of Justice of Poland, the German Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (BMJV) and MiKK e.V. jointly hosted a bi-national conference in Warsaw on 26-27 October 2017. More than 130 judges, mediators, guardians ad litems, lawyers and high-ranking representatives of both ministries came together at the symposium for an fruitful exchange. In a series of interdisciplinary lectures and interactive workshops by experts from Poland and Germany, different aspects of mediation, child abduction and bi-national custody conflicts were discussed.

Marie Luise Graf-Schlicker, Ministerial Director in the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection, Germany and Dr Michał Wójcik, State Secretary in the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Poland, Poland gave short welcoming speeches. Representing the working group that created the Wrocław Declaration of 2007, Dr. Eberhard Carl, Judge at the OLG (former Ministerialrat) and Dr inż. Elżbieta Dobiejewska, mediator, Lower Silesian Mediation Centre DOM, reported on the intensive exchange between German and Polish mediators from MiKK and DOM. The exchange then resulted in the Wrocław Declaration, in which the MiKK Co-mediation Model was founded. The work of both Central Authorities was presented by the two heads, Christian Höhn (DE) and Kamila Zagórska (PL). The German liaison judges for Hague child abduction cases Sabine Brieger and Martina Erb-Klünemann presented the MiKK model, MiG mediators in court. Dr. iur. Katarzyna Schubert-Panecka spoke about the special features of mediation in German-Polish Hague child abduction cases. Prof. Dr. Ulla Gläßer from the European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder) spoke about mediation in cases with domestic violence. MiKK was represented by Isabel Fernández de Castillejo, chairwoman of the board, who moderated the event. MiKK board members Prof. Volker Raddatz and Dagmar Lägler gave workshops on interculturalism in mediation and the mediation landscape in Germany. Magdalena Jańczuk and Ischtar Khalaf-Newsome, MiKK, presented on the topics of multilingualism and interculturalism in family mediation, and gave a workshop on the “Voice of the Child in Mediation”. Thanks to Magdalena Jańczuk’s fantastic planning and organization (and Polish-German language skills!) the symposium was a great success.

The detailed program with all speakers and workshops, further information and photos can be found here.

Articles about the Polish-German Symposium

Read an article by Martina Erb-Klünemann, German Liaison Judge of The Hague Network and European Judicial Network representative, who made an important contribution to this symposium by speaking on the inclusion of mediation in judicial proceedings under the 1980 Hague Convention. Published in Centrale für Mediation.

Publication on 10 Years MiKK Wroclaw Declaration on Bi-national Child Mediation 

Mediation Aktuell, 21 September 2017, Dagmar Lägler & Konrad Sobczyk 

German-Polish seminar series 2007-2013 and the Wroclaw Declaration

Information to follow.