The Singapore Convention: Promoting the Enforcement and Recognition of International Mediated Settlement Agreements

ICC Bulletin

Fall 2018

Current enforcement mechanisms for mediated settlement agreements vary widely across jurisdictions providing little certainty in international disputes. In recent years, there have been numerous calls by scholars, practitioners and users for the development of a mechanism for the uniform enforcement and recognition of international mediated settlement agreements. Following three years of effort, the UNCITRAL Working Group II successfully completed the drafting of a multilateral convention for enforcement and recognition titled ‘The Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation’ which will be commonly known as the ‘Singapore Convention’. The new convention was approved by consensus of UNCITRAL’s Member States on 25 June 2018, at its fifty-first session. Parallel amendments have been made to the 2002 Model Law on International Commercial Mediation and International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation to add provisions that mirror those of the Singapore Convention. These new instruments promise to provide parties with a clear, uniform framework for the enforcement and recognition of international mediated settlement agreements that will enable users of mediation to reap the benefits of their agreed solutions and drive the increased use of mediation just as the New York Convention drove the increased use of arbitration.