ENDING SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND VIOLENCE IN THIRD LEVEL EDUCATION (ESHTE) CONFERENCE #ITSTOPSNOW - IT STOPS NOW.
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Ending Sexual Harassment and Violence in Third
Level Education (ESHTE) Conference
Thursday, 7 March 2019 | Liberty Hall, Dublin
#ItStopsNow
CONFERENCE TIMETABLE 9am Registration
9.30am Welcome and Introductions
Ellen O’Malley Dunlop | National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI)
Orla O’Connor | NWCI
9.40am Opening Address
Minister Mary Mitchell O’Connor | Minister of State for Higher Education
10am Keynote Speech | Gender-Based Violence in Universities: Reflecting on the Challenges Dr
Ruth Lewis | Northumbria University
10.30am Keynote Speech | Not on the Radar: Gender-Based Violence against University
Students with Disabilities.
Dr Katrin List | Technological University of Dortmund
11am Coffee Break
11.15am Panel Discussion | The Role of Student Activism in Leading Change
Chaired by Artemis Michael | Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies
• Síona Cahill | Union of Students in Ireland (USI)
• Julian Lo Carlo | National Union of Students in Denmark
• Fatemeh Nokhbatolfoghahai | Glasgow University Students Representative Council
• Arnas Paškevičius | Šiauliai University Student Association
12pm Workshops
Shared Learnings in Tackling Sexual Violence and Harassment in the Higher Education
Sector: Questions and Answers
Dr Ruth Lewis | Dr Katrin List | Dr Clíona Loughnane (NWCI - Rapporteur)
Trauma-Informed Support
Kathryn Dawson (Rape Crisis Scotland) | Róisín O’Donovan (Dublin Institute of
Technology Student’s Union - Rapporteur)
Inclusion and Integration
Aisling Cusack (Union of Students in Ireland) | Catherine Lane (NWCI - Rapporteur) |
Jennifer Okekwe (Immigrant Council of Ireland)
1pm Lunch
1.45pm Panel Discussion | Transforming Leadership: Responding to Sexual Violence and Harassment
Chaired by Tara Brown | NWCI
• Selina Bonnie | Disability activist
• Noeline Blackwell | Dublin Rape Crisis Centre
• Sandra Healy | Dublin City University
• Jason Last | University College Dublin
2.30pm Workshops
Campaigning for Change
Orlaith Grehan (NWCI) | Damien McClean (USI - Rapporteur) | Dovile Rukaite (Women’s
Issues Information Centre) | Rachel Simpson (Glasgow Caledonian University)
Prevention Initiatives: Bystander Intervention and Consent
Dr Louise Crowley (University College Cork) | Dr Pádraig MacNeela (National University
of Ireland Galway) | Helen Mullarkey (NWCI - Rapporteur)
Reporting and Support Processes
Mary Crilly (Sexual Violence Centre Cork) | Michael Lynch (An Garda Síochana) | Melissa
Plunkett (University College Dublin Student’s Union) | Denise Roche (NWCI - Rapporteur)
3.30pm Reflection
Jennifer McCarthy Flynn | NWCI
3.50pm Closing Remarks
4pm Event Ends
WELCOME TO THE ESHTE
CONFERENCE
The National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) is delighted to welcome
you to its ESHTE Conference, offering a timely and invaluable opportunity to
explore the challenges of and solutions to sexual violence and harassment
(SVH) in higher education.
Today’s event brings together a broad range of stakeholders from across Europe
to examine the prevalence, culture, and lived experience of SVH in higher
education, discussing various approaches and interventions to combat and
prevent harmful behaviours.
We will share learnings from our European Union (EU) funded ESHTE Project,
which, over the last two years, has worked with students, institutes, support
services, and governmental agencies across Europe to develop collective
strategies and promote meaningful institutional and cultural change.
SVH is an issue deeply rooted in gender inequality, with women and girls
representing eight out of ten sexual assaults in Europe, and women aged 18-
25 most at risk. Ensuring women enjoy equality, safety and active participation
within the higher education community requires the sector taking proactive,
affirmative action to embed the values which will shape a better future and
more equal society for us all.
We hope that this conference compels and empowers us all to consider and act
on our shared responsibilities in building a culture of zero tolerance towards
SVH.
1
SPEAKER PROFILES Minister Mary Mitchell O’Connor Mary Mitchell O’Connor TD is Minister of State at the Department of Education with special responsibility for Higher Education having been appointed on 14 June 2017. Minister Mitchell O’Connor previously served as Minister of Business, Enterprise and Innovation from May 2016, leading on the creation of sustainable full employment across all regions of the country, seeing, for the first time in almost a decade, over two million people employed in Ireland. The Minister has shown great leadership in the area of promoting Gender Equality within Ireland’s higher education institutes. In November 2018, in tandem with the publication of her Gender Action plan, the Minister introduced a Senior Academic Initiative, which constitutes 45 female-only professorships in departments that have significant under-representation of female academics. This progressive, re-balancing initiative will be conducted over three years, 15 posts per year. Late last year, the Minister convened an advisory group on sexual consent within our higher education institutes. The group is made of leaders in the area including Dr Padráig MacNeela, Dr Louise Crowley and Tara Brown, as well as other academics and students. The group is chaired by Dr Anne Looney, Executive Dean from the Department of Education in DCU. The Minister will be announcing shortly the recommendation from the consent advisory group. Minister Mitchell O’Connor is committed to leading the development of national policy on equity of access to higher education for all students, overseeing a range of support measures which facilitate greater levels of participation by disadvantaged students, mature students, and students with disabilities. In October 2018, the Minister introduced the Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) (Amendment) Bill 2018 in Seanad Éireann. The enactment of this legislation will enable the introduction of the International Education Mark (IEM). This is a key element of the Government’s International Education Strategy which aims to foster and strengthen Ireland’s reputation as a destination of choice for international students. 2
Noeline Blackwell
Noeline Blackwell is a human rights lawyer who is Chief Executive of the Dublin
Rape Crisis Centre which works to prevent the harm and heal the trauma of
sexual violence. She has previously worked as the Director of FLAC, the Free
Legal Advice Centres, and as a solicitor in private practice. She has been a
member of a number of non-governmental organisation (NGO) boards, the
Commission on the Future of Policing, and a statutory board.
Selina Bonnie
Selina Bonnie is an Indian / Irish disabled woman who holds a Master’s degree
in Disability Studies from the University of Leeds and a Professional Diploma in
Human Rights and Equality from the Institute of Public Administration and Irish
Human Rights and Equality Commission. She has been an activist, lecturer, and
trainer in the international disabled people’s movement for more than 25 years.
Her particular research interests centre on sexuality, sexual expression, and
reproductive rights for disabled people. Selina has been published on related
topics in various fora, including a chapter titled ‘Towards Sexual Citizenship:
Dispelling the Myth of Disabled People’s Asexuality’, in the book Sexualities and
Irish Society: A Reader. She is also a busy wife and mother who works full time
for South Dublin County Council as their Disability Liaison, Access and Equality
Officer.
Tara Brown
Tara Brown is the Coordinator of the ESHTE Project with the NWCI. Tara has
over a decade of experience working and advocating on violence against
women and gender equality issues. She has managed sexual violence frontline
support services, delivered training to broad range of stakeholders and has held
communications and policy development roles. As part of the ESHTE project she
leads on the ‘It Stops Now’ campaign, toolkit development and training delivery
to Higher Education Institutes (HEIs). She holds a BCL from University College
Cork, Masters of Law in Human Rights Law from Queens University Belfast and
a Professional Diploma in Leadership, Creativity and Innovation from University
College Dublin (UCD).
3
SPEAKER PROFILES Síona Cahill Síona Cahill is the President of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) and formerly its Vice President (VP) for Equality and Citizenship. She has been at the forefront of activism for some of Ireland’s most critical human rights issues in recent years, such as campaigning for marriage equality, where she coined the ‘Make Grá The Law’ student campaign, and reproductive rights, where she was lead organiser for Students For Choice and Longford Coordinator for Together for Yes. Síona has used her public platform to push for sexual consent education and awareness, after first launching a ‘Consent is Sexy’ campaign while VP for Welfare with Maynooth Student Union (SU) in 2014, messaging that is now integral to the national Sexual Health Awareness and Guidance Week run by USI and the Health Service Executive (HSE). She sits on the boards of the Higher Education Authority, the Irish Family Planning Association, and in 2018 was the recipient of a GALA, Ireland’s LGBT Awards. She has a degree in Law and Sociology from Maynooth University. Mary Crilly Mary Crilly is a founder member and Director of the Sexual Violence Centre Cork. The Centre marks 36 years of service provision on International Women’s Day, 8th March, this year. A feminist activist, Mary has witnessed and been party to much of the change in Irish society and institutional responses to sexual violence for the past four decades. She is most noted for her tireless campaigning for policy and legislative change in the fields of sexual violence, sex trafficking, domestic violence, female genital mutilation and human rights. She is active at local, regional, national and international levels. Mary holds an MA in Women’s Studies and the Diploma in The Psychology of Criminal Behaviour from University College Cork (UCC). Mary is passionate about her work to change cultural attitudes surrounding sexual violence and to demolish ‘rape culture’. She believes that the young people of our country are key to effecting these changes. Dr Louise Crowley Dr Louise Crowley is a Senior Lecturer in Family Law at the School of Law in UCC, where she is the Director of LLM (Children’s Rights and Family Law), and the innovative Family Law Clinic. Louise is the author of the leading Irish family law text, Family Law (2013), and her current research includes the inadequacies 4
of Irish domestic violence laws and services. Louise has developed a
dedicated online information hub relating to all aspects of family law – www.
familylawinformation.ie - which provides access to family law information and
processes for the broader community. Louise has developed the Bystander
Intervention programme at UCC which is now available online to all students
at UCC. This module seeks to encourage an understanding of the normalisation
of sexual harassment and violence and to empower students to pro-actively
recognise their capacity as contributors to a safer campus and society. Louise is
also a member of the Governing Body of UCC.
Aisling Cusack
Aisling is the current VP for Equality and Citizenship with the USI. She graduated
from the Institute of Technology Tallaght (IT) in 2015, where she went on to
be the Deputy President for Education with IT Tallaght Students’ Union, in the
first all-female sabbatical team in the union in 12 years. She was elected as
the first VP for the Dublin Region with USI. She was heavily involved in many
local students’ union campaigns and building momentum within her region
for national campaigns regarding housing, education, and reproductive rights.
Aisling co-led the national student voter registration campaign which saw
30,000 students registering to vote ahead of the referendum to repeal the
eighth amendment. In December, she organised the largest LGBTQI+ event for
students in Europe and will be focusing her work on the promotion and support
of women in leadership, campaigns to end direct provision and environmental
sustainability in 2019.
Kathryn Dawson
Kathryn Dawson is the Sexual Violence Prevention Coordinator for Rape
Crisis Scotland. She developed and coordinates the national sexual violence
prevention programme, which is delivered by Rape Crisis Centres in secondary
schools across Scotland, and a pilot whole school approach to gender-based
violence prevention with partners Zero Tolerance. Through the ESHTE project
she has worked closely with the University of Glasgow (UoG) and Glasgow
Caledonian University (GCU) to build an understanding of how best to work with
staff and students to tackle sexual violence and harassment in universities, and
is involved in the implementation of Scotland’s toolkit for the prevention of
violence against women and girls in universities and colleges across Scotland,
Equally Safe in Higher Education (ESHE).
5SPEAKER PROFILES Orlaith Grehan Orlaith Grehan is the ESHTE Project Officer, supporting project delivery and coordinating the project’s ‘It Stops Now’ campaign. With a background in communications and advocacy, prior to the NWCI, Orlaith worked extensively in media, campaigning and management roles in the disability and international development sectors. She holds a degree in Journalism and French from Dublin Institute of Technology and is currently studying towards a Masters in Ethics in Dublin City University (DCU). Sandra Healy Sandra Healy is Head of Diversity and Inclusion at DCU, and is the Director of the recently launched DCU Centre of Excellence for Diversity and Inclusion. Sandra holds an Honours Degree in Psychology and First Class Masters in Organisational Psychology from DCU. Over the past ten years, Sandra has championed and driven diversity and inclusion practice in Irish industry and provided critical diversity expertise and sectoral knowledge that ensured the EU Diversity Charter Ireland was established. Sandra represents DCU on the 30% Club Ireland and, in March 2017, developed and co-delivered a 30% Club Ireland ‘Building Inclusion Together’ workshop for senior male leaders. Sandra is the Education Advisor for Connecting Women in Technology. Sandra is in the top three of the ‘20 Diversity Leaders to Watch’ in 2018, and was shortlisted for the European Diversity Awards 2018. Professor Jason Last Professor Jason Last began teaching in the UCD School of Medicine in 2000. He was appointed Director of Pre-Clinical Education in 2008, and School Director of Educational Development and Academic Affairs in 2014. Having led the University Continuing Professional Development Board of Studies, Professor Last was asked to lead the development of the UCD Student Mental and Wellbeing Policy, launched in 2015. Nationally, he has worked closely with agencies and organisations on professional accreditation and quality review processes, and is also active in patient education and advocacy, joining the Board of the Irish Platform for Patient Organisations, Science and Industry. Appointed University Dean of Students in January 2017, Professor Last has responsibility for the student experience in UCD, and is committed to the continued enhancement of UCD’s programmes and educational environment so that every student may 6
be fully supported in reaching their potential. He is a founding member of the
ESHTE National Advisory Committee and has established a parallel group within
UCD.
Dr Ruth Lewis
Ruth Lewis is Associate Professor in the Department of Social Sciences at
Northumbria University. Her research focuses on gender-based violence (GBV)
and feminist activism and spans sociology, criminology and gender studies.
Recent work examines GBV in universities and activism about it (e.g.: GBV in
University Communities: Policies, Prevention and Educational Initiatives (2018),
edited with Sundari Anitha, and a special issue of Violence Against Women (2019),
edited with Susan Marine). With Mike Rowe and Clare Wiper, she conducted
the first victimological survey of feminists who experience online abuse. Earlier
research with Rebecca Dobash, Russell Dobash and Kate Cavanagh examined
legal responses to domestic violence, including perpetrators’ programmes, and a
sociological examination of homicide. She has been involved in feminist activism
and networks of various kinds, in and beyond universities. This has included
helping to run domestic violence organisations, to organise conferences for
practitioners and scholars and activist gatherings, and to provide training about
dealing with sexual violence.
Dr Katrin List
Katrin List is a German sociologist, political scientist and criminologist. For her
PhD, she comparatively analysed the concern by sexualised violence for female
and male students in higher education, both empirically and in the theoretical
context. She is currently engaged in the impact of gender in disability studies
at the Technological University Dortmund. Before it, she worked as research
associate at the Department of Gender Studies on ´Social Inequality and Gender´
at the Ruhr-University Bochum. She was the coordinator of the multi-national,
European Commission-funded project, GBV, Fear of Crime and Stalking (2009-
2011), at the Department of Criminology and Police Science at Ruhr-University
Bochum. This project gathered and analysed 22,000 responses among female
students at 34 universities in five European countries. It aimed at awareness-
raising for sexualized violence against students and the development of best
practices for prevention and intervention at institutions of higher education.
She studied in Berlin, St. Petersburg and Warsaw.
7SPEAKER PROFILES Detective Inspector Michael Lynch Michael Lynch joined An Garda Síochána in June 1989. He is a Detective Inspector at the Garda National Protective Services Bureau since 2015 and was a Detective Sergeant at that unit between 2006 and 2013. Michael is a member of the ESHTE National Advisory Committee. His main responsibilities are the investigation of sexual crime, including online child exploitation and the protection of children. He has also had responsibility for the monitoring and management of convicted sex offenders. He has been a consultant/trainer to the United Nations regarding the investigation of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse perpetrated by United Nations personnel. Michael holds a B.A. (Humanities), majoring in Psychology, from Maynooth University and a M.Sc. in Child Protection and Welfare from Trinity College Dublin. Julian Lo Curlo Julian Lo Curlo is Executive Committee Member and International Officer in the National Union of Students in Denmark (Danske Studerendes Fællesråd [DSF]). As International Officer, Julian coordinates all the international relations of DSF and acts as representative for the students in Denmark in different fora, among them the European Students’ Union. On top of that, Julian has expertise in the areas of international and refugee students in Denmark, and focuses a substantial part of his work around those two. Julian is an Argentinian international Global Development Master’s student at Copenhagen University. Dr Pádraig MacNeela Pádraig MacNeela is a senior lecturer at the School of Psychology, National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway. He leads the Active Consent programme, which will engage with young people in colleges, schools, and sports organisations from 2019-2022 to support the message that consent is ongoing, mutual, and freely given, using strategies such as surveys, workshops, film series, and other media. The programme is based on collaboration between health promotion, psychology, and drama studies, and partnership with agencies, organisations, and youth themselves. Pádraig has worked as a lecturer since 1999, is a co-director of the PhD in Child and Youth Research, and co-applicant on the YouLead youth mental health research programme, funded by the Health Research Board from 2018-2022. Since 2013, his work on sexual consent has been supported by 8
Rape Crisis Network Ireland, the Health Service Executive (HSE) Sexual Health &
Crisis Pregnancy Agency, NUI Galway Student Projects Fund, the Irish Research
Council, and Lifes2good Foundation.
Jennifer McCarthy Flynn
Jennifer McCarthy Flynn is Head of Policy with the NWCI, leading the development
of NWCI policy and advocacy work. Jennifer has worked in Ireland, Canada and
Namibia, and has a background in women’s transformative community education
and development, including international development.
Artemis Michael
Artemis Michael joined the Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies (MIGS)
in 2015 as a Project Officer and Researcher. Her EU projects dealt with sexual
violence and harassment, trafficking of human beings, and issues related to
migration and asylum from a gender perspective. Her work as a researcher
involved drafting national and transnational reports on topics such as risk
assessment and the integration of asylum seekers and refugees. She represented
MIGS in coordinating the ESHTE project up to August 2018. Artemis holds a
degree in Cultural Studies with a minor in French Literature from the University
of Bucharest and a Master’s in Human Rights and International Politics from the
UoG. Her later studies focused on violence against women and girls, especially
in the context of coercive control. Artemis is currently reading Law at Queen
Mary University of London.
Fatemeh Nokhbatolfoghahai
Fatemeh is a medical student and currently the VP of Student Support at the
Glasgow University Students’ Representative Council (GUSRC). She represents
over 28,000 students and campaigns on their behalf to ensure that the
university makes decisions that put students and their welfare at the heart
of everything. Tackling GBV has been a priority for GUSRC, and Fatemeh has
continued to organise and promote its ‘Let’s Talk About Sexual Violence’ peer-
led workshops that look at prevention through Bystander Intervention. These
workshops were developed as a result of a successful partnership with GCU, its
Students’ Association, and Rape Crisis Scotland. Fatemeh has also been involved
in the further development of tiered training for staff at the university, and
9SPEAKER PROFILES the improvement of report and support mechanisms through its GBV Strategy Group. Most recently, GUSRC was one of the first in Scotland to launch the highly successful ESHTE project’s ‘It Stops Now’ campaign. Orla O’Connor Orla O’Connor is the Director of the NWCI, the leading national women’s membership organisation in Ireland, with over 180 member groups, and the Chair of the Irish Observatory on Violence against Women. She stood as Co- Director of Together For Yes, the national civil society campaign to remove the Eighth Amendment in the 2018 referendum. Orla holds a Masters in European Social Policy, and has worked in senior management in NGOs for over 25 years. Orla represents NWCI in a wide range of national and international fora. Orla is a feminist and an expert in the policies needed to progress women’s equality in Ireland. Orla has led numerous successful campaigns on a wide range of issues on women’s rights, including social welfare reform, pension reform, and the introduction of quality and affordable childcare. Orla is passionate about ensuring access to women’s reproductive rights, more women are in leadership positions, ending violence against women, and increasing women’s economic equality. Ellen O’Malley Dunlop Ellen O’Malley Dunlop is Chairperson of the NWCI. She is Adjunct Professor to the School of Law at the University of Limerick. She was the Chief Executive Officer of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre for ten years between 2006-2016. Previously, she worked as a psychotherapist for 24 years and was the first female President of the Irish Council for Psychotherapy. She served as a member of the Board of Gaisce, The President’s Award, for a four-year term, and is currently a member of the Legal Aid Board. For 24 years, she has been Director of the Annual Bard Summer School in Clare Island, County Mayo. She is a Fine Gael Candidate for the next general election in Dublin South West. 10
Jennifer Okekwe
Jennifer Okekwe is a community activist and former Chairperson of a migrant
women’s organisation based in Ireland. She is currently the Anti-Trafficking
Officer with the Immigrant Council of Ireland. Jennifer has extensive experience
in relation to gender, stigmisation, human rights and migration (refugees, asylum
seekers, direct provision etc). She has a proven history of supporting local and
migrant communities in the promotion of integration. Jennifer is presently a
PhD candidate with DCU, researching the experiences of migrant women who
are sex trafficked into Ireland, and holds a Masters in International Relations,
Law and Government from DCU.
Arnas Paškevicius
Arnas Paškevičius is currently studying in his home-town univeristy in Šiauliai,
Lithuania, Šiauliai, Lithuania. Apart from studying business administration, he
has been an active member of the university’s Student Association for almost
four years, and is currently its Marketing Coordinator. Arnas is interested in
participating in discussions about gender and sexual inequality issues, and
believes that there is a problem when professors evaluate students, based not
on their abilities, but rather on their gender or other discriminatory factors.
Melissa Plunkett
Melissa Plunkett is the Welfare Officer in the SU in UCD. She is a midwifery
student and she qualified as an Emergency Medical Technician in 2013. Melissa
works closely with the Consent at UCD committee on events and campaigns to
educate and empower UCD students. She also sits on the ESTHE Project Advisory
Group in UCD. Melissa has several years of experience in hearing disclosures
and being the first point of contact for survivors of sexual violence. In her role
as Welfare Officer she has been able to apply this knowledge to help students
and to work in collaboration with UCD to ensure all survivors feel heard and
supported.
11SPEAKER PROFILES Dovile Rukaite Dovile Rukaite has been an NGO activist since the first women’s organisations started to grow in Lithuania. She is a project manager in the Women’s Issues Information Center (WIIC), and specializes in Culture, Policy and Project Management. With over 18 years of experience with different gender equality projects, she writes articles, manages social media networks, and founded the first Information Portal on gender equality in Lithuania. Her field of expertise is gender mainstreaming, GBV, and women’s empowerment. Rachel Simpson Rachel Simpson is the Student President at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU), where she has responsibility for representing the student voice to the university, and has the executive lead on mental health, and preventing and responding to GBV. In 2018, she worked in close partnership with GCU on developing its student support facilities on campus, and has contributed to the ‘Preventing and Responding to GBV’ working group at GCU, which has introduced a GBV policy , and launched its ‘Erase the Grey’ campaign. Rachel leads on the GCU Student Associations’ student-led ‘Let’s Talk about Sexual Violence’ workshops, in partnership with Rape Crisis Scotland and the GUSRC. She also contributes to a national working group with the National Union of Students to steer and develop projects in SUs across Scotland on projects which will help eradicate GBV in society. 12
ABOUT THE ESHTE PROJECT
The ESHTE project aims to prevent and combat SVH in third-level
institutes across Europe. Funded by the European Commission, the
project is led by the NWCI, with partners include the Mediterranean
Institute of Gender Studies (MIGS) in Cyprus, Rape Crisis Scotland
(RCS), the Women’s Issues Information Centre (WIIC) in Lithuania and
the Women’s Equality Commissioner, LMU Munich in Germany.
Each project partner works closely with higher education institutes,
student leadership bodies, statutory agencies, and non-governmental
organisations in each country, creating a cohesive network of
stakeholders focused on combatting SVH against women.
ABOUT THE NATIONAL WOMEN’S
COUNCIL OF IRELAND
The NWCI is the leading national women’s membership organisation
seeking equality between women and men, founded in 1973. We
represent our membership, which includes over 180 member groups,
as well as a growing number of individual members from a diversity
of backgrounds, sectors and locations.
Our mission is to lead and to be a catalyst for change in the
achievement of equality between women and men. We articulate the
views and experiences of our members and make sure their voices are
heard wherever decisions are made which affect the lives of women.
Our vision is of an Ireland, and of a world, where there is full
equality between women and men.
13Find out more about the ESHTE Project at www.itstopsnow.org Follow us on Twitter @ItStopsNow_EU or Facebook ItStopsNow
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