Discrimination, harassment, and negative special treatment

Discrimination, harassment, and negative special treatment.

Information to students who feel victimized.

Discrimination, harassment, and negative special treatment.

Information to students who feel victimized.

At Linnaeus University there is zero tolerance of discrimination, harassment, and other types of negative special treatment. All students, regardless of social background or group identity should be given equal opportunities and possibilities.

This brochure is aimed at you who are a student and want to learn more about your rights or feel that you have been subjected to discrimination, harassment or other types of negative special treatment.

What is discrimination, harassment, and negative special treatment?

The text below explains the legal definition of the concepts. You can read more about discrimination on the Equality Ombudsman’s website.

Discrimination Discrimination means that an individual or a group is disadvantaged in relation to other people in a comparable situation based on one of the seven grounds of discrimination: • Age • Gender • Gender-transcendent identity or expression • Sexual orientation • Disability • Ethnic identity • Religion or other belief Harassment Harassment is acting that violates someone else’s dignity and is linked to one or more of the grounds of discrimination. Harassment can, for instance, be giving expression to ridiculing or derogatory generalisations.

Sexual harassment Sexual harassment is harassment of sexual nature. In addition to comments and words it can be unwelcome physical contact, compliments, jokes, invites or proposals, glances or photos with sexual allusions.

Negative special treatment Negative special treatment is actions that are aimed at one or several people in an offensive way. This can result in people feeling unwell mentally and people being excluded.

Advice to you who feel subjected The interpretative prerogative lies with the person who has been subjected!

It is you who feel subjected who decides whether a behaviour or an action is unwanted and results in uneasiness. It does not matter what intentions the person had with his/her actions.

Make your voice heard and show that the behaviour is unwelcome It is important to show that a certain behaviour is unwelcome. If you do not want to speak with the person who according to you treats you badly, you can write a letter or send an email. If you do, remember to save copies. You can also ask someone else to talk to the person who has treated you badly.

Write down all events Make notes of time and place, what happened, what was said, and how you experienced the situation. In case there is an investigation, these notes may prove to be important documentation. Also save any emails, texts or the like from the person you feel has treated you badly.

Talk to someone It can be difficult to know what type of negative special treatment or discrimination you have been subjected to. As a student, you are always welcome to contact the student union LinnÊstudenterna’s student and doctoral student representatives, or the coordinator for equal opportunity to get help file a report.

Report and measures As a student, you can turn to the head of department at your department to report any events. The head of department is then responsible for investigating what has happened and for documenting the work. If it is the head of department you feel disadvantaged by, you can contact the dean at your faculty instead.

As a student you can also send a report to the registrar (registrator@lnu.se) at the university. You can also leave an oral report to the coordinator for equal opportunity who then documents the event in writing and sends it to the registrar. The report should contain: • an account of what has happened • when it took place • name of the person who has been subjected and his/her department, programme or course • name of the person who has been reported and his/her department, programme or course • any witnesses to the event Once a report has been received, the manager at the executive office appoints an investigator who is commissioned to speedily, objectively and in a legally sound way look into what has happened.

Public document – what is that?

The report that is sent to the registrar becomes a public document covered by the Public Access to Information and Secrecy Act. This means that media and other people can request to take part of these documents.

The student union Linnéstudenterna is an interest organisation and does not count as an authority, and is therefore not covered by the Public Access to Information and Secrecy Act. Reprisals prohibition at Linnaeus University You should not have to worry about negative consequences of your report.

Therefore, Linnaeus University has a reprisals prohibition in place, which means that you will not experience any form of punishment or bad treatment as a reaction to your report.

If you experience any form of negative treatment you should report this to the investigators. The negative treatment should stop and a new investigation concerning whether the reprisals prohibition has been violated will be initiated.

Support and information Linnéstudenterna At Linnéstudenterna there are doctoral student representatives and student representatives in both Kalmar and Växjö. The representatives can assist you if you wish to file a report and also take part in dialogue with the investigators. Contact information can be found here.

The student welfare office If you are in need of conversational support you can contact the student welfare office to book an appointment with a welfare officer. The welfare officers are sworn to professional secrecy and the talks are free of charge. You can learn more and book an appointment here.

Coordinator for equal opportunity The coordinator for equal opportunity can tell you more about how to file a report and what an investigation will look like. You can also leave an oral report to the coordinator who will then write it down and send it to the registrar. If you have any questions or wish to book an appointment with the coordinator for equal opportunity, you can send an email to likavillkor@lnu.se.

391 82 Kalmar / 351 95 Växjö Telefon 0772-28 80 00 E-post info@lnu.se