Singapore Convention on Mediation

About Mediation: It is a process for discussing and resolving disputes outside the courts.

• It is a party-driven process whereby the mediator’s role is not to adjudicate, but rather to facilitate discussions between disputing parties to arrive at a mutually acceptable solution.
• It is flexible, confidential, and in many instances, more cost and time efficient than other dispute resolution processes such as litigation and arbitration.

About Singapore Convention on Mediation:

• It applies to international settlement agreements resulting from mediation, concluded by parties to resolve a commercial dispute.
  • For the purposes of the Convention, the terms ‘mediation’ and ‘conciliation’ can be taken to be interchangeable.
• It is the first UN treaty to be named after Singapore.

Origin– The Convention was finalised at the 51st UNCITRAL Commission session, which came to a close in July 2018.

• • In December 2018, the UNGA, by consensus, passed a resolution to adopt the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation, recommended that the Convention be known as the “Singapore Convention on Mediation”.
  • The Convention entered into force in 2020.

Member Status of Convention- Original members- 46 countries, including the United States and China – as well as China, India and South Korea – signed the Convention on the day it opened for signature.

• • As of 22 December 2021, the Convention has 55 signatories, of which eight are parties(India is not among the 8 of the parties) to the Convention.

Parties to the SCM can make the following reservations when signing the SCM:

• To qualify that the Convention would not be applicable to settlement agreements to which its government or other public entities are a party.
• To adopt an opt-in approach which provides that the Convention only applies to the extent that the disputing parties agree to its application.

Eligibility of the dispute: The mediation settlement agreement must be international, commercial in character.

• The Convention does not apply to settlement agreements that are enforceable as a judgement or arbitral award.

The competent authority of a Party state to the SCM may refuse to grant relief on the grounds laid down in the SCM, including:

• If the settlement agreement is not binding, null and void, inoperative or incapable of being performed under the law to which it is subjected, or has been subsequently modified.
• If there was a serious breach by the mediator in terms of applicable mediator standards, or failure to disclose circumstances that raise doubts as to mediator impartiality or independence, without which the party would not have entered into the agreement.
• If granting relief would be contrary to the public policy of the Party state.
• Only if party furnishes to the competent authority proof that a party to the settlement agreement was under some incapacity.