Date:
March 21, 2016
School of Media and Cultural Studies
Tata Institute of Social Sciences cordially invites you to
Tackling Gender-Based Harm on campus: the University of the Witwatersrand experience
A Lecture by Dr. Jackie Dugard, associate professor at the School of Law, University of the Witwatersrand,
Date and Time: Monday, 21 March 2016 at 4 pm
Venue: Room #4, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (Main Campus),
V.N. Purav Marg, Deonar, Mumbai – 400088
About the Talk:
It is increasingly acknowledged that universities around the world have largely failed to guard against and adequately deal with Gender-Based Harm (GBH) on campus. At the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg this reality was painfully acknowledged when, during late-2012 and early-2013, a series of damning and damaging sexual harassment complaints by students against academic staff members were propelled into the public domain after the complainants felt they were let down by the University.
The University responded by appointing a top law firm to manage the disciplinary inquiries against the accused academics (following which four academics were dismissed or resigned), and established a separate Independent Inquiry Into Allegations of Sexual Harassment.
The Independent Inquiry recommended the establishment of a single office institutionally located in the Vice-Chancellor’s Office, reporting to the Vice-Chancellor, to holistically deal with all matters pertaining to gender discrimination, sexual harassment and gender violence, from advocacy, through counselling and to complaint-driven interventions including disciplinary hearings (under a new unitary disciplinary procedure for staff and students alike), and regardless of whether staff or students are involved as complainants or accused persons.
In line with the recommendations of the Inquiry, the University adopted a new Sexual Harassment, Sexual Assault and Rape Policy and Procedures (Policy HRG/10).
In February 2014, the Sexual Harassment Office was established, tasked to comprehensively combat GBH. In December 2014, in recognition that its role was much broader than reactively dealing only with sexual harassment, the office was renamed the Gender Equity Office (GEO). The office has four full-time staff members – a director, an administrative officer/receptionist, a clinical counsellor, and an investigation and advocacy officer.
The GEO has now been operating for two years. In this presentation, Jackie Dugard, GEO’s director, will discuss the GEO experience and model for addressing GBH.
Jackie Dugard is an associate professor at the School of Law, University of the Witwatersrand, where she lectures Property Law. Between February 2014 and December 2016 Jackie was seconded by the University of the Witwatersrand to establish and direct a new gender office, the Gender Equity Office (GEO), focusing on preventing Gender-Based Harm on Campus. With a background in social sciences and law, Jackie is a human rights activist and scholar, and has published widely on the role of law and courts in affecting social change, as well as on socio-economic rights, access to courts, protest and social movements. Jackie has recently co-edited, with Malcolm Langford, Ben Cousins and Tshepo Madlingozi, the book Symbols or Substance?: Socio-Economic Rights in South Africa (2015, Cambridge University Press). She is on the editorial committee of the South African Journal on Human Rights (SAJHR). Jackie was a co-founder and the first executive director of the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI), where she is currently Chairperson of the Board. Jackie is also a Member of the Board of Trustees of Womin (an African gender and extractive industries alliance), on the Executive Committee of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (CASAC), and a member of the South African Human Rights Commission’s Section 11 Committee on Access to Housing.
Tata Institute of Social Sciences cordially invites you to
Tackling Gender-Based Harm on campus: the University of the Witwatersrand experience
A Lecture by Dr. Jackie Dugard, associate professor at the School of Law, University of the Witwatersrand,
Date and Time: Monday, 21 March 2016 at 4 pm
Venue: Room #4, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (Main Campus),
V.N. Purav Marg, Deonar, Mumbai – 400088
About the Talk:
It is increasingly acknowledged that universities around the world have largely failed to guard against and adequately deal with Gender-Based Harm (GBH) on campus. At the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg this reality was painfully acknowledged when, during late-2012 and early-2013, a series of damning and damaging sexual harassment complaints by students against academic staff members were propelled into the public domain after the complainants felt they were let down by the University.
The University responded by appointing a top law firm to manage the disciplinary inquiries against the accused academics (following which four academics were dismissed or resigned), and established a separate Independent Inquiry Into Allegations of Sexual Harassment.
The Independent Inquiry recommended the establishment of a single office institutionally located in the Vice-Chancellor’s Office, reporting to the Vice-Chancellor, to holistically deal with all matters pertaining to gender discrimination, sexual harassment and gender violence, from advocacy, through counselling and to complaint-driven interventions including disciplinary hearings (under a new unitary disciplinary procedure for staff and students alike), and regardless of whether staff or students are involved as complainants or accused persons.
In line with the recommendations of the Inquiry, the University adopted a new Sexual Harassment, Sexual Assault and Rape Policy and Procedures (Policy HRG/10).
In February 2014, the Sexual Harassment Office was established, tasked to comprehensively combat GBH. In December 2014, in recognition that its role was much broader than reactively dealing only with sexual harassment, the office was renamed the Gender Equity Office (GEO). The office has four full-time staff members – a director, an administrative officer/receptionist, a clinical counsellor, and an investigation and advocacy officer.
The GEO has now been operating for two years. In this presentation, Jackie Dugard, GEO’s director, will discuss the GEO experience and model for addressing GBH.
Jackie Dugard is an associate professor at the School of Law, University of the Witwatersrand, where she lectures Property Law. Between February 2014 and December 2016 Jackie was seconded by the University of the Witwatersrand to establish and direct a new gender office, the Gender Equity Office (GEO), focusing on preventing Gender-Based Harm on Campus. With a background in social sciences and law, Jackie is a human rights activist and scholar, and has published widely on the role of law and courts in affecting social change, as well as on socio-economic rights, access to courts, protest and social movements. Jackie has recently co-edited, with Malcolm Langford, Ben Cousins and Tshepo Madlingozi, the book Symbols or Substance?: Socio-Economic Rights in South Africa (2015, Cambridge University Press). She is on the editorial committee of the South African Journal on Human Rights (SAJHR). Jackie was a co-founder and the first executive director of the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI), where she is currently Chairperson of the Board. Jackie is also a Member of the Board of Trustees of Womin (an African gender and extractive industries alliance), on the Executive Committee of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (CASAC), and a member of the South African Human Rights Commission’s Section 11 Committee on Access to Housing.
_______________________________
Dr. Shilpa Phadke
School of Media and Cultural Studies
Tata Institute of Social Sciences
Mumbai