As a Mediation Specialist, USAID/NCSC, Lynn Cole was assigned to Kosovo to design all aspects of the first court-related Pilot Mediation Program in Kosovo. Working with judges in Gjlan, Kosovo, she prepared recommendations to them related to: general mediation procedures and forms; selection of mediator trainees; educational requirements for mediators; mediator training requirements; provisions for referring cases to mediation; mediation procedures for recording case intakes, case processing, and case disposition; mediation confidentiality; creation of a mediation steering committee; grievance procedures, and mediation fees.
She assisted in organizing Basic Mediation Training, sponsored by USAID in Kosovo, by assisting in the design and content for a mediation Pilot program training both Kosovar and Serbian mediators.
The students of the MBB Student Chapter at the University of Ljubljana have completed some interesting research on Kosovo as a background to providing peacekeeping efforts in Kosovo by Mediators Beyond Borders:
The 1999 Kosovo crisis produced possibly the fastest mass exodus and rapid return of refugees in modern history as an estimated 860,000 ethnic Albanian Kosovars fled or were deported to neighboring states within weeks and then returned just as quickly later in the year. It was also one of the most complex operations in UNHCR’s experience, with humanitarian considerations inextricably linked with global military and political developments, and the first exodus-return of ethnic Albanians followed by a second massive flight of 230,000 Serbs and Roma as the fortunes of war changed dramatically.