A Guide for Practice: Against Sexual Harassment, Violence, and Stalking
The 4th updated edition of the Guide for Practice: Against Sexual Harassment, Violence, and Stalking has been published.
Under the heading: "Contacts and Counseling Services
Outside the University" you will find, among other things, the contact details for Michaela Spandau, who was appointed on November 15, 2020 as an Legal Counsel of the Ministry of Science, Research, and the Arts
in Baden-Württemberg (MWK), and is available to all universities in BW as an independent contact person both for those affected and for contact persons.
Another new addition is the USG: Investigation Center for Victims of Violence at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, where externally visible injuries after physical violence can be documented in a court of law without prior criminal charges.
We will gladly send printed copies on request.
What is new, which interfaces, contact persons and institutions have changed or have been added?
- Expansion of the title to include the concept of violence: A Guide for Practice: Against Sexual Harassment, Violence and Stalking.
- At the end of 2016, sexual harassment was added to the Criminal Code (StGB) as an offense under Section 184i. According to this, anyone who physically touches another person in a sexually specific manner and thereby harasses them is liable to prosecution.
- With the increasing digitalization of work and study, including at universities, and the corresponding increase in requests for advice from the Equal Opportunities Office, the addition of the chapter on digital violence was urgently needed. Digital violence includes all criminal acts committed using information and communication technology or against it; most frequently using the Internet and e-mail as a means of committing the crime.
- With the election of Prof. Kerstin Krieglstein as Rector of the University in May 2020 and of Prof. Sylvia Paletschek as Prorector for University Culture in February 2021, the functions within the Mediation Commission and the so-called "formal procedure" according to the Guide to Action passed to the newly elected Rectorate.
- The chapter
o Support and Recommended Action for Affected Persons with the associated
o action scheme was completely revised and supplemented.
o The chapter legal foundations and legal provisions was updated and shortened to a double-page spread, with a listing of the paragraph titles, but without naming the legal texts. With the fourth LHG amendment at the end of 2020:
o the regulations on contact persons for issues related to sexual harassment were removed from § 4 LHG and re-located in § 4a I 1.
o the corresponding confidentiality obligations for contact persons were removed from § 4 I 9 LHG and re-located in § 12 I 4, more clearly emphasized and further formulated. - In the service section, the chapters "Further information" and internal and external contact and advisory offices were updated and the following institutions were newly included:
o By Rectorate decision of February 20, 2019, the function of female contact person was transferred to the newly elected Equal Opportunity Officer since 11/18, Dr. Regina Herzog. - At the examination center for victims of violence (USG) at the Institute of Forensic Medicine of the University Medical Center Freiburg, victims can since 04/2021 low-threshold, without prior police report and free of charge, externally visible injuries and consequences of violence documented in a court of law.
- On November 15, 2020, Michaela Spandau, a lawyer specializing in criminal law and victim protection, was appointed as the universities' ombudsperson of confidence in cases of sexualized discrimination, harassment and violence, within the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts (MWK). As an independent and neutral contact person, she offers both contact persons, higher education institutions and those affected, free initial legal advice - anonymously if necessary - with the assurance of legal confidentiality.
