Not a single complaint of harassment at the Faculty of Law of Lisbon made it to court

None of the harassment complaints filed last year with the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon (FDUL) made it to court, revealing an institution that is developing a code of conduct to prevent and combat harassment.

A year ago, the Faculty Council of the FDU opened a complaints hotline and in just 11 days received 50 complaints of harassment and discrimination, which accused 10% of college teachers.

Among the defendants was a teacher, against whom nine complaints were filed, and two others, who were attributed five crimes each.

When asked about the steps taken after the complaints, the institution explained that all complaints were anonymous and the Pedagogical Council prepared a report that “the faculty sent to the prosecutor’s office, who proceeded to archive it,” Luse’s office explained. Press release from the Faculty of Law.

At that time, the Faculty of Law also decided to establish a Victim Support Office (GAV) to help deal with situations of harassment and discrimination in confidence by offering legal and psychological advice.

During the past year, GAV received 10 complaints and “all of them were given appropriate follow-up, so much so that as a result there were three investigation processes for which external instructors were assigned to the FDUL who concluded that they were archived, the recipe “.

Lusa asked the institution about the date of the alleged incidents and what situation was reported in the complaints, but the institution stated that “the faculty is unable to disclose the content of the complaints to be analyzed.”

Last December, the faculty explained what happened to the remaining complaints: two were of a pedagogical nature and five concerned “absolutely established facts related to the functioning of the services or legally irrelevant.”

Since then, there have been no new complaints, but the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon decided to keep the service operational for “bringing relevance to the project as a response to those who are vulnerable to harassment.” “.

Today, the press service also reported that the institution is developing a code of conduct, in which representatives of all departments of the faculty participate.

Last December, the Associação Académica de Lisboa conducted a survey that showed that about two out of ten university students have already been victims or witnesses of harassment.

The majority of respondents (85%) said at the time that they were not aware of any office or hotline, defending the importance of their existence.

Allegations of harassment and sexual assault at the Center for Social Studies (CES) of the University of Coimbra, made by three researchers, were made public this week.

The accused are the sociologist Boaventura Souza Santos, director emeritus of CES, and the anthropologist Bruno Sena Martins, a research fellow at the institution, who, however, have denied all charges.