The right to the rules

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Why do we have something to learn from German universities in matters of protection from harassment?

Recently, the media and social networks are increasingly discussing issues of violation of sexual integrity and harassment. Discussions and scandals on this subject especially affected the journalistic, human rights and academic communities. Inside the university environment, several discussions and dramas unfolded at once, associated not only with the meeting in the case of Oleg Sokolov, but also with accusations of Harassment against teachers and professors of the historical and philological faculties of Moscow State University.

Unfortunately, it is surprising not only the presence of all these stories in which the teachers of serious universities allowed themselves, according to the witnesses, inappropriate touches, kisses and comments - the community is vaccinated to the presence of such outputs and used to turn a blind eye to this, not to notice such relationships and not to help the victims of sexual harassment. It is amazing that the academic and university community was not ready for a constructive discussion of the facts presented.

Many representatives of this community - which I got used to calling their own - are more likely to see the conspiracy and struggle for applicants in the stories of the victims, attempts to promote or discredit university reforms, undercover personnel conflicts, “infringed ego” students and graduates who decided to “avenge” teachers or administration of universities, and a direct threat of personal life and the basics of romantic relations between romantic relations between romantic relations. people. In my opinion, the painful experience, which the victims of harassment decided to share publicly, should not only be perceived with respect and sympathy, but can help us figure out what is happening in universities and understand how we can fix it.

Without claiming an objective look and not trying to comprehensively highlight how the relations between professors and students, as well as cases of harassment, harassment and other forms of violation of sexual integrity of the individual are considered in Germany, I would like to show what Russian universities can learn from German colleagues.

In the German regulatory acts of the federal and land level, the recommendations of universities in what can be called the “internal regulations”, it is not directly indicated that relations between teachers and students/doctoral students are prohibited. The German legal discourse is concentrated in the field of protection against discrimination and harassment as one of its forms. In 2016, in Germany, amendments to the law on sexual violence were adopted: now the law is based on the principle of “no - means no” [ 1 ] and it describes in detail what should be meant by Harassment.

Since 2006, in Germany, the general law on equal handling [ 2 ] (The General Act on Equal Treatment, or in German abbreviation AGG) has also been in force. Initially, he postulated the inadmissibility of discrimination on the floor, age, racial, religious and other principles, but in 2013 amendments that describe the harassment, including sexual harassment, and its inadmissibility at the workplace, appeared in the law. Responsibility for the exercise of the right to lack discrimination (and sexual integrity) lay on the shoulders of employers. They had to show zero tolerance to the harassment and provide in their organizations such an atmosphere in which the victim could or could - since men also become objects of undesirable attention - to seek help.

The Federal Anti -Discrimination Agency in Germany, based on an empirical study among students, issued a document [3], according to which university listeners have the same rights that were described in the general law on equal appeal .. Moreover, the agency reminded the leadership of the land that each region can be developed and adopted its regulations, which allowing them to better implement the requirement of the requirement Federal Law.

The agency also drew the attention of universities to the fact that their autonomy allows them and should stimulate them to accept their own guidelines that protect students from discrimination (in general) and harassment (in particular). Such guidelines should include the basic principles of communication between members of the university community, the definition of harassment, a description of preventive measures and the mechanism for resolving such situations, as well as information about which a student (ka) can turn to if his (its) rights are violated.

Many universities took advantage of this right and created the relevant manuals and mechanisms of settlement. Such a leadership was created by the famous Berlin Medical University of Sharyli [ 4 ], which organized his own research in 2014-2016 and found that 70% of the respondents (76% of women and 62% of men) were objects of harassment during studies or at the workplace. Basically, the harassment was expressed in verbal form - oral or written, but there were also many precedents of whistle, touch and the like. The university declares that he has a zero level of tolerance to the harassment and describes in detail the consequences in his leadership [ 5 ].

Bremen University of Jacobs [ 6 ] gives a detailed definition of harassment in his discrimination guide: it is sexually painted, undesirable, verbal and/or non -verbal behavior, which has its intention or forces the victim to feel intimidated (s), humiliated (s) and insulted (s). The leadership name the main forms of harassment, which are found in real life (among them, for example, insulting sexualized comments and jokes, a request for intercourse, inappropriate invitations to dates and meetings, constant view, feeling, obscene exposure, patting, strokeing, plowing, whistles, undesirable correspondence with e -mail or email or e -mail or e -mail or e -mail. Social networks, including photos of the genitals and other types of undesirable and inappropriate behavior, passing professional boundaries).

The university administration introduced the position of a special person - the universal, with whom you can discuss what is happening, and also created a special council, which can confidentially consider each specific case. The University of Jacobs pays great attention to measures that can warn such behavior: for example, each new employee and a new student receive a copy of the aforementioned management and signs a document stating that they are informed about the working conditions and will follow them.

The University of Heidelberg [ 7 ] released a brochure in English and German, which is distributed among students, with the main information about what discrimination and harassment are. This brochure [ 8 ] describes not only the principles of work and relations within the university. The administration clearly prescribes sanctions that may follow a public trial regarding harassment. So, any employee can get a written warning, listen to the instruction about unacceptable behavior, undergo a mandatory training or get a transfer to another department. In serious cases, any employee-including lecturers (LehrbeauftragTe), PrivatDozenten PrivatDozenten, Extraordinary Professors (Außerplanmäßge Professoren) or Honorarprofessoren-may receive a ban on finding on the territory university, dismissal or a complete ban on the implementation of the teaching profession. Extraordinary and honorary professors can also be deprived of their titles if the charges against them are confirmed. Students, if they become not victims, but initiators of harassment, can feel the impact of various sanctions, including expulsion from the university.

University of Martin Luther (Galle-Vittenberg) [ 9 ], understanding the Harassment, a special sexualized form of discrimination, emphasizes that harassment is always a unilateral act that is undesirable for another participant in the situation, and they always damage a person’s dignity. The harassment differs from flirting and non-chassing in that it is perceived by the victim as disrespectful and unacceptable behavior. The main principle guided by the University of Martin Luther is respect for the refusal, therefore, relations based on harmony and do not bear the threats of negative consequences are not a harassment.

The Free University of Berlin [ 10 ] emphasizes that without the consent of the victims of harassment, no decision can be made, since the victims often carry reputation costs and risk - publishing the situation - to lose both educational and professional prospects. The university admits that the harassment can happen everywhere - even in such a beautiful, enlightened place as a higher educational institution. Therefore, in the structure of a free university there is a working group to counteract Harassment [ 11 ], and any participant in the educational process can contact it.

The Humbold University in Berlin in 2014 held the campaign “There is no place for harassment” [ 12 ], which included seminars for women and transson to counteract harassment and discrimination: how to respond verbally and non-verbal (and-physically) to sexualized harassment. In February 2020, the day of actions against harassment, discrimination and violence at universities also took place [ 13 ]. The University of Gettingen created special educational programs to combat “academic sexism” [19] - humiliating comments about appearance, personal and intimate life, and sexist assessments of behavior. The university admits that this problem exists, and women are especially susceptible to it, therefore it considers it necessary to help them react to such comments and behavior (one of the discussions, for example, was called “I was too puzzled to react ...”: about everyday sexism in science ”). At the University of Bilefeld, they are engaged not only in help in difficult situations, but also understand how all these anti-discrimination guidelines generally work and help someone.

Bremen University back in 1992 - before the emergence of the #Me Too movement, to large scandals in other universities and other countries - created an internal unit in which students (and employees) can turn for help. The German rectorship conference [20] in 2018 adopted a resolution directed against sexual discrimination and harassment.

Particular attention in it is paid precisely to the fact that relations that exist in the institutions of higher education are always (highlighted by the author - ed .) Are associated with the hierarchy and dependence and therefore can lead to abuse of powers and are fraught with subordinate groups. Rectors associate this with the fact that the same person can play the role of the leader (scientific work) and the boss (department), as well as, due to his authority and status, can influence the academic or professional community outside his educational institution. Therefore, universities are responsible for developing such structures and rules that allow minimizing the possibility of using their power, although, of course, harassment and harassment can also arise in horizontal relationships.

A complaint about the professor (or representative of the university administration) is more complex and “dangerous” than a complaint about a fellow student, because it can lead to more serious consequences, destroy an educational track or career. That is why in Germany - as, unfortunately, in many other countries - statistics on the number of cases of harassment have not existed, and there were no representative studies. The RUR University in Bochum conducted a study [21], which not only showed the structure of harassment and sexual harassment, but also described a wide range of consequences of such behavior for objects of unwanted attention.

Describing the positive normative experience in Germany, I have no right to say that the problem in German universities has been completely solved. I think her complete decision will require even more time and preventive measures. However, the main thing that is happening is that the attitude towards students and the culture of understanding the inviolability of the personality, someone else's body changes, a new idea of ​​the personal boundaries and respect of human dignity is formed.

Problems with conflict resolution and proceedings in cases of harassment exist. Experts emphasize: students are often little informed about their rights; Each situation should understand individually and automatism in decisions is unacceptable; a gap in power - formal and informal - is huge between students and university staff; The victims of harassment are still most often become women; Harassment not only extremely negatively affects the university community and environment, but also does not allow its victims to finish education and continue his career, etc.

But what distinguishes Germany from many other countries is a detailed elaboration of measures to counteract the harassment and the willingness to admit that it exists. Each victim has the opportunity to seek help, weigh the situation and find a solution to the problem. I would like such practices and experience gained in other countries to become affordable for students and students, graduate students and graduate students, young employees and employees of Russian universities. If it is sloppy jokes, inappropriate strokes, sexist comments and other forms of harassment will disappear from the corridors of Russian universities, they will not impoverish from this.

The world is changing. Recent stories related to Harassment, including tragic, indicate this particular. Students openly declare that the state of affairs in which the joke of “third-year students never age” seems funny to someone, ceases to be the norm. They are ready not only to make public “ugly stories”, but also to fight for their right to study in a comfortable environment, fulfilled by respect for the personality and rights of each participant in the educational process. The call to a change in the “rules of the game” and the development of understandable and detailed mechanisms for resolving conflicts related to harassment at universities sounds loud enough. This is an attempt to change the culture of the academic and university community in which such behavior should cease to be the norm.

Daria Skibo, scientific. sore. TsNSI (St. Petersburg),
Styropende of the Federal Chancellor of Germany 2019–2020

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