Public services as interfaces between citizens and human rights: towards a European standard for service use

The paper introduces the first conceptual draft of the Mediation Grammar, a standard for evaluating public services and guiding public administrations to design and deliver services that fulfil migrants' rights. The Mediation Grammar is designed as a collection of minimum requirements for public services to guarantee the rights of migrants and refugees who enter the European Union legally. It aims to provide a common basis for the harmonisation of public services to migrants and refugees throughout Europe. It is agnostic with respect to the way a public service is organised, notably with respect to the degree of digitalisation. Therefore, it acknowledges and, if possible, supports the daily work of the so-called cultural mediators - professionals usually belonging to NGOs who work with local authorities and public agencies to bridge the knowledge gap between immigrants and their host communities and societies. To define the Mediation Grammar concept, we took benefit from three sources of inspiration: the US Federal government's Common Core State Standards Initiative; the Council of Europe's Common European Framework of Reference for language learning, teaching and assessment; and the vision set forth by the easyRights Horizon 2020 project of linking local public services to the migrants with the protection and enhancement of human rights. The concept has three building blocks: language enhancement, information guidance, and rights implementation, which are joined in a single framework. Measurement is ongoing, using the inspiration of the CEFR approach to the evaluation of language proficiency. The process of standardisation has been initiated with the collaboration of UNI, the Italian Normation Body.