Newest Member of Singapore Convention on Mediation: Turkey

In December 2018, a resolution regarding the adaptation of United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation (hereinafter: The Convention) passed in UN General Assembly. As of October 2021, 55 States have signed The Convention and 8 of them have ratified it. Turkey is the most recent State to ratify The Convention.

Generally, parties of business agreements choose to rely on litigation and arbitration since their enforceability is secured with international conventions, however, now with the Singapore Convention, parties have the opportunity to choose mediation to solve their disputes without worrying about the enforceability of a mediation agreement. The Convention aims to provide the harmonization of mediation rules internationally, The Convention also aims to secure confidentiality of the mediation proceedings which makes it even more appealing to use mediation as a dispute resolution method. Regarding the enforceability of the settlement agreement, every member State will decide on its own enforceability rules, furthermore the grounds for refusing to grant relief are listed under Art. 5 of The Convention.

According to the convention, for a mediation agreement to be governed by Singapore Convention there are some requirements which are set forth within the convention. The disputes that fall under the scope of The Convention are required to be commercial in nature. For The Convention to be applicable, at least two parties to a settlement agreement must have their places of business in different States or, either: the parties’ place of business is different from the State in which a substantial part of the obligations under the settlement agreement is performed or with which the subject matter of settlement agreement is most closely connected, and the agreement should be in writing as a form requirement and it should be the result of a mediation. Lastly, the settlement agreement should have parties’ signature alongside evidence that the settlement agreement resulted from mediation i.e. mediator’s signature.

In conclusion, Turkey became the most recent State that ratified the convention and took part in the harmonization of international mediation rules.