Cork professor: Education is key in tackling sexual violence in society

THE publication last week by the Central Statistics Office of shocking data on the nature and prevalence of sexual violence once again highlighted this devastating issue and the extent of the challenge faced by society to address it.

The survey reported 20% of female respondents have been victims of rape and 52% aged 18-24 have experienced sexual violence.

The Third National Strategy to Domestic, Sexual and Gender based Violence, published by the Department of Justice and Equality in June, 2002, mandates a zero-tolerance approach to all forms of intimate partner abuse.

A critical aspect of this is the delivery of education and awareness to all of society, to ensure an understanding of what respectful relationships look like, as well as awakening the awareness and capacity of every individual to contribute to ending the devastating reality of sexual harassment and violence.

The Third Level sector in Ireland has led the way in developing and delivering targeted educational initiatives with Consent and Bystander Intervention training to ensure staff and students receive comprehensive evidence-based education to create a safe and respectful environment as they work and study.

Last week, the National Women’s Council of Ireland and the Department of Higher and Further Education launched their Good Practice Guide that will serve as an operational aid to support the significant efforts of Third Level instiutions across Ireland to address issues of sexual hostility, harassment, and violence.

In recognising their unique position as educators, the Higher Education sector has led the way in seeking to effect real cultural change. The guide, created through a cross-institutional and service provision consultative process, will inform and support this progress.

In 2018, then Minster for Higher Education Mary Mitchell O’Connor had the foresight to bring key experts together at a conference in Dublin Castle which for the first time truly shone a light on the severity of the issue, its devastating impact, and importantly both the need and capacity for real cultural change.

That day, the landscape changed. After this gathering, the Minister established an Expert Working Group to develop a framework of responsibilities for all Higher Educational institutions, to require a cross-sector targeted response to the culture of sexual harassment and violence at third level.

This framework, entitled ‘Safe, Respectful, Supportive and Positive - Ending Sexual Violence and Harassment in Higher Education’, introduced a range of significant obligations on Irish HEIs, to progress more robust campus wide responses to this challenging societal danger.

The framework demands the development of targeted initiatives, effective structures for recording and responding to incidents of abuse and the introduction of dedicated institutional policies that clearly identify each institutions response to all such incidents.

To his credit, in 2019, in his first week as Minister for Higher and Further Education, Simon Harris convened a meeting with the National Women’s Council National Advisory Committee to fully immerse himself in the issue of third level responses and to actively progress real change, emphasising the need for staff to be included in this vision for change and also the importance of reaching all students and staff in a meaningful way.

Our third level institutions must be a sanctuary for learning, personal development, friendship, and the awakening and progressing of dreams. When a student or staff member is subjected to any form of sexual harassment or violence this sanctuary is shattered.

Through the publication of this Good Practice guide, the National Women’s Council National Advisory Committee comprising students, staff, support services, the Higher Educational Authority and members of an Garda Siochana has provided the catalyst for change and supported a shared vision amongst third level institutions to make that change happen.

As a sector, we strive to meet our obligations as established in the National Framework, responding in multifaceted ways through the development and enhancement of policy and processes for reporting, the delivery of trauma informed supports and the rollout of targeted initiatives including bystander intervention and consent training with the effect of raising awareness and understanding as well as cultivating individual and desire and capacity to contribute to that change.

We continue to work together to address the challenges by improving our reporting systems and processes in order to reach every student and every staff member, to ensure that as educational institutions we use our expertise and our incredible reach to inform, to support, to educate, and to empower.

There is undoubtedly a shared vision in our institutions to not only address but to end sexual harassment and violence.

The third level sector has also led the way for societal change, the vision for change now informing sporting organisations, workplaces, youth groups and the broader community who are engaging with the education, developing a greater understanding of what sexual harassment and violence looks like and understanding the need for a proactive collective response, a realisation that we can and must do better.

Most recently, UCC sports clubs signed up to bespoke bystander intervention training to enable players and coaches to better identify acts of harassment and violence and empower them to contribute to making change happen. We are definitely witnessing a shift in the landscape at third level and beyond.

The work of the National Women’s Council of Ireland National Advisory Committee is a superb, best practice example of a powerful, effective approach to supporting cross sector grassroots change in Third Level institutions.

To its credit, the National Advisory Committee has empowered every institution, irrespective of its starting point, to learn, to share and to develop meaningful responses to ensure that wheresoever students attend, and staff are employed, their right to a safe and respectful studying or working environment can be realised. Working together generously and collegially we have and will continue to make real change happen.