Active Bystanding

Despite their educational mission and commitment to equal opportunity, universities and colleges are not free from discriminatory structures and sexualized violence. According to the UniSAFE study (2022), 62% of respondents have experienced at least one form of gender-based violence at their institution. Power imbalances between faculty and students often play a central role in this.
 

Many people report situations where they witnessed or experienced discrimination and did not know how best to respond. This is precisely where the EAF Berlin project, "Active Bystanding – Addressing Intersectional Discrimination and Sexualized Violence at Universities and Colleges," comes in. The project aims to further develop the active bystander concept created at Charité to prevent sexual harassment and violence within the higher education context. Building on this, the goal is to create a publicly accessible blueprint available to universities across all disciplines that wish to implement measures against intersectional discrimination and sexualized violence.

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What is active bystanding?                                

Many people report situations where they witnessed or experienced discrimination and did not know how best to respond. This is the focus of the pilot project being conducted by EAF Berlin in collaboration with Charité Berlin. The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

The foundation is the active bystander concept developed at Charité to prevent sexual harassment and violence in higher education. The concept relies on members of the university community learning how to handle sexualized violence at a peer level—especially when they are not the ones directly affected. Therefore, the concept is primarily aimed at students. In seminars conducted by the educational competence center i-PÄD Berlin, participants receive practical guidance on how to act in uncertain situations—how to be active bystanders.

The original Charité concept is being further developed for the current project to suit specific contexts. This means the concept is being adapted to meet specific needs and applied to other contexts and target groups. Building on this, the goal is to create a publicly accessible blueprint available to universities across all disciplines that wish to implement measures against intersectional discrimination and sexualized violence. Ideally, this will result in a concept paper that interested parties can download as a project transfer product to implement at their own institutions and train future active bystanders.

What are active bystanders?

• Active bystanders intervene: When they witness discrimination, they make a conscious decision to say or do something rather than letting the situation unfold and remaining passive.
• Active bystanders send clear signals: They make it clear to perpetrators and everyone present that discriminatory behavior is unacceptable. When such messages are consistently reinforced within communities, the boundaries of what is considered acceptable behavior can shift.
• Active bystanders act safely and informed: They know how to address a situation without putting themselves in danger and are familiar with the five "Ds" of active bystanding: Distract, Direct, Delegate, Delay, and Document.