In an international context we should recognise that the understanding of mediation is not uniform and its application in different countries varies.
Mediation means different things to different people.
For some it is a voluntary process, for others compulsory. Some have developed it as interventionist and solution-prescriptive, while others understand it as a more passive facilitative process. Some jurisdictions see it as incorporating all these elements under different circumstances. Some call it conciliation, others distinguish it from conciliation. Some, like the ILO, use the terms interchangeably.