On November 16, 2021, the Lebanese Parliament authorized the Lebanese government to join the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation also known as “the Singapore Convention on Mediation”.

Adopted in December 2018, the Singapore Convention on Mediation applies to international settlement agreements resulting from mediation. It establishes a harmonized legal framework for the recognition and enforcement of such agreements.

The Convention recognizes the value of Mediation as a method for settling commercial disputes in which the parties in dispute request a third person or persons to assist them in their attempt to settle the dispute amicably.

To date, the Convention has been signed by 55 countries and entered into force in 8 countries.

The Lebanese Parliament authorized the Lebanese Government to join the Singapore Convention on Mediation and to declare the reservations described in Article 8 of the Convention.

It is worth reminding that this Article allows a party to the Convention to declare that it shall not apply this Convention to settlement agreements to which it is a party, or to which any governmental agencies or any person acting on behalf of a governmental agency is a party, to the extent specified in the declaration and/or that it shall apply this Convention only to the extent that the parties to the settlement agreement have agreed to the application of the Convention.

Along with the adoption of the Lebanese law on judiciary mediation of September 24, 2018, the signature of the Singapore Convention aims at promoting Mediation as an efficient tool of alternative dispute resolution in Lebanon.