Mediation, in its narrowest and probably most traditional of definitions is an out of court procedure that can facilitate conflicting parties to resolve their disputes with the assistance of a third neutral party that cannot however take a decision on their behalf.
Moreover, it is a structured procedure based in Principled Negotiations, with sophisticated core values and systematic tools that may apply not only to resolve disputes, but also to prevent conflicts (or escalation of such), as well as to construct procedures in order to accommodate difficult socio economic situations that may result to conflict.