Sexual harassment

Sexual harassment is a form of gender-based discrimination. It can be:

• verbal, e.g. sexist jokes, suggestive remarks about someone’s body and appearance, questions about sexual preferences etc.
• nonverbal, through gestures and looks: e.g. insistent staring at certain body parts, derogatory or obscene gestures, showing or displaying sexist/pornographic imagery etc.
• physical, through unwanted proximity and touching (“accidental” or obvious)

Both members of staff and students are subject to the harassment ban in connection with employment, training or higher education. The Federal Equal Treatment Act (Bundes-Gleichbehandlungsgesetz, B-GlBG) prohibits university staff and students from engaging in sexual harassment towards others.

The university is also responsible for protecting its members of staff and students, i.e. preventing sexual harassment and taking appropriate action when an incident becomes known. This protection against harassment also applies to incidents that occur outside the place of work or study (e.g. on field trips, at conferences, on research trips, at job-related meetings outside of university, online etc.). The scope of protection applies as soon as there is a thematic connection with work, training or higher education.