Gender-based and LGTBIphobic violence
Have you suffered gender-based or LGTBIphobic violence at the UPF?
Do you know anyone else this has happened to?
Equality officer:: Lluïsa Rojas ([email protected])
Telephone number: 93 542 29 41
Office: 40.067 (edifici Roger de Llúria del campus de la Ciutadella)
Opening hours: de dilluns a divendres, de 10.00 a 14.00 h
Action protocol
The protocol aims to:
- Prevent sexual harassment or discriminatory or violent behaviour among members of the university community, based on a person's sex or sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.
- Establish action guidelines to detect this behaviour; investigate and, where appropriate, initiate the administrative measures to take action or clear people from possible disciplinary responsibilities.
The Equality Unit is responsible for all inquiries and complaints (cat , cast , eng ) regarding gender-based violence and LGBTIphobia.
This specialised unit has different support services for the three groups within the university community, including cases in which it is not possible to activate the protocol because the application criteria are not met.
- Protocol to prevent and act against gender-based violence, sexual harassment and harassment based on sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression (Full text in Catalan)
- Spanish version. This version is for information purposes. The original version is Catalan
- English version. This version is for information purposes. The original version is Catalan
Support resources at the UPF
- Support for teaching adaptations.
- Regulation (only in Catalan)
- Required documentation (only in Catalan)
- Teaching adaptation services (only in Catalan)
- Psychological support service from the CONEXUS Association, for victims of sexist or LGBTIphobic violence.
- Equality Fund (only in Catalan): Fund jointly managed by all the vice-rectorates that have responsibilities for student affairs and equality issues. This fund provides financial resources to help students who are suffering sexist violence or LGBTIphobia. Application form.
- Inter-university agreements for the free transfer of students in cases of gender-based violence, sexual harassment, harassment due to sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. The Catalan Government and all the Catalan universities have signed two collaboration agreements to facilitate the free transfer of official degree students, in an agile and rapid manner, at any time during the academic year, in the following two cases:
- The first agreement is applicable to women students who prove that they have been victims of sexist violence, or applicable to their dependent sons and daughters, through the mechanisms contemplated in article 33 of Law 5/2008, of 24 April, of a woman's right to eradicate sexist violence, the services detailed in article 54.2 of Law 5/2008, as well as the proof of the violent situation contemplated under article 23 of Organic Law 1/2004 of 28 December, regarding comprehensive protection measures against gender violence.
- The second agreement is applicable to students who prove that they have been victims of sexual harassment, because of their sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. If the university protocol is activated, the means of accreditation will be the report issued by the university itself; in the case of the aggression that occurred outside the university environment, the means must be those included in article 33 of Law 5/2008, taking into account that the public services with identification capacity mentioned in part e) of this article include, in any case, the services detailed in article 54.2 of Law 5/2008, or reports issued by the Xarxa de Catalunya's Comprehensive Care Services for LGBTI people or other competent bodies. The harassed person must always take up this transfer voluntarily, that is to say, it must be a tool that the Administration and the universities offer them to overcome the situation, without interfering in their decision and certainly not imposing it in any way.
Information and external resources
For emergencies, 24/7, 365 days a year, call 112.
Department of Equality and Feminism, Generalitat de Catalunya :
Catalan Women's Institute :
- Telephone service of the Catalan Women's Institute: (free and confidential): 900 900 120.
- Services and offices with information and care services for women (SIADs)
- Recommendations against gender-based violence
- Resource guide for dealing with gender-based violence
Barcelona City Council:
- Information and Service Points for Women ( PIADs ) 936 197 311.
Emergency Service of Barcelona's Hospital Clínic:
- Care for victims of sexual assault: 932 275 400 .
Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police service):
Public attention centres and feminist and LGBTI organization spaces:
- Interactive map, produced by the USVReact project.
What can we do if we see gender-based or LGTBIphobic violence?
If we see a sexist or LGBTIphobic aggression or hear about one having taken place, we too take on a role in the problem. It is key to be aware of this responsibility and not take a passive stance or ignore it. We need to act.
This short animation shows us an example of the actions we can take and the resources we have available to us in these situations.
Conduct guidelines for teaching staff, support staff and students
See the Annex to the UPF Code of Conduct (Code / annex in its English version)
on violence, discrimination and harassment, approved by the Governing Council on 24 February, 2021. The aim of the annex is to collect the principles regarding personal and professional action in matters of equality and non-discrimination on the grounds of sex, sexual orientation or gender identity that must govern interactions between the members of the university community, and includes the staff of the subcontracted companies that carry out their daily work at the different branches of the UPF.
Conduct guidelines (prevention)
Identifying sexist or LGBTIphobic violence: Audio-visual resources
Gender-based violence and LGBTIphobia are far more deeply rooted in our society than we can imagine and are present in all the spaces where we interact, including the areas of the university where we work, study, meet or relax. In our patriarchal societies, these roots are so deep that the sexism, homophobia or transphobia underlying certain comments or attitudes often go unnoticed or unrecognized as such.
Take a minute to identify them:
- Només Sí és Sí / Solo Sí es Sí / Only Yes means Yes
- Mostrar-nos tal com som / Mostrarnos tal como somos / Be as you are
- Qüestionar les relacions de poder / Cuestionar las relaciones de poder / Challenging power relations
- Xarxes socials lliures de violències / Redes sociales libres de violencias / Social netwworks free from violence
- Jo et crec / Yo te creo / I believe you
Self-diagnosis for student associations
The Equality Unit and the SACU are offering a Guide to self-diagnose issues of gender and how to address violence to student associations and other collectives (such as groups or assemblies). The aim of this guide is to help UPF student associations carry out their own self-diagnoses regarding gender awareness in their functioning and activities, as well as to deploy an action protocol that ensures dignity, physical and moral integrity and the sexual freedom of women and LGBTI people who participate in the activities or parties organized by the associations. These are framework protocols, which associations can adjust to their own workings and characteristics, with the advice of the Equality Unit.
These framework protocols do not replace the protocol in force at the University. Instead, they complement it, the aim being that the associations will be able to address any conflicts that may occur within them. However, and especially in the most serious cases, we remind you that the reference unit for filing a complaint is the Equality Unit, which also has different information and support resources for people who have suffered gender-based or LGBTIphobic violence both inside and outside the University.
Previous protocols and follow-up
Here you can find our three previous protocols, now no longer in force:
- For students, 6 May, 2015.
- For PAS and PDI (teaching and support staff), 17 February, 2016.
- Protocol for the entire university community, 11 April, 2018.
Student Protocol Monitoring Report, March 2018.
Student Protocol Monitoring Report 2018-2019 and for 2020-2021.
"UPF safe space" survey
The UPF Equality Unit is responsible for attending all inquiries and complaints about gender-based violence and LGBTIphobia. It has sent out this survey in order to collect valuable information to improve detection, prevention and care activities within the university community. The survey is part of the University's Second Equality Plan, specifically action 5.6.
Fieldwork for this online survey was conducted between October 22 and November 6, 2019 by the Means Evaluación consulting firm. In total, 3,374 responses were received (2,812 from students, 338 from support staff and 224 from teaching staff). It analyses different forms of harassment and aggression, occurring inside or outside the University: sexual harassment, sexual abuse and sexual aggressions, as well as sexual harassment and harassment due to sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.
You can consult the report on the quantitative and qualitative results of the survey in Catalan or in Spanish.