Harassment, Discrimination & Victimisation
What is Harassment, Discrimination and Victimisation?
Harassment
Harassment under the Equality Act 2010:
‘Harassment’ has the meaning given in section 26 of the Equality Act 2010 . It is any behaviour that is unwanted and could reasonably be considered as violating a person’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them is potentially harassment. unwanted incident or conduct related to a protected characteristic which has the purpose or effect of:
- violating a person’s dignity; or
- creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them.
Some examples of harassment include but are not limited to:
- The use of derogatory terms and offensive comments
- Assault or other non-accidental physical contact,
- Ostracising, ignoring and staring
Bullying
Bullying may be characterised as offensive, intimidating, malicious or insulting behaviour, or misuse of power through means intended to undermine, humiliate, denigrate or injure the recipient. Power does not always mean being in a position of authority, but can include both personal strength and the power to coerce through fear or intimidation. Bullying can take the form of physical, verbal and non-verbal conduct. Non-verbal conduct includes postings on social media outlets. Bullying may include, by way of example:
- shouting at, being sarcastic towards, ridiculing or demeaning others
- physical or psychological threats
- overbearing and intimidating levels of supervision
- inappropriate and/or derogatory remarks about someone’s performance
- abuse of authority or power by those in positions of seniority
- deliberately excluding someone from meetings, communications or presentations without good reason.
Legitimate, reasonable and constructive criticism of performance or behaviour, or reasonable instructions given to staff, students or third parties in the course of their employment, work or studies will not amount to bullying on their own.
Discrimination
Discrimination is when someone is treated unfairly because of who they are or because of a protected characteristic such as age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership or pregnancy and maternity.
Types of discrimination
Treating someone less favourably because of who they are, especially if it’s because of a protected characteristic as listed above.
This is a form of direct discrimination, and is when someone thinks you have a characteristic and treats you less favourably, regardless of whether you actually have that characteristic. For example if someone mistakenly thinks you are part of a religious group and treats you less favourably because of this, it would still be discrimination, even though you aren’t in that religious group.
This is also a form of direct discrimination, and is when someone treats you less favourably because you have an association with someone else who has a protected characteristic. For example, if you are treated differently because you have family members with disabilities, this is still direct discrimination against you.
When a provision, criteria or practice is applied in the same way for everyone, but this has the effect of putting people sharing a protected characteristic at a disadvantage. It doesn’t matter if there was no intention to disadvantage that group. What matters is whether that action does disadvantage that group in some way. An example of this could be a dress-code or rules on appearance which might indirectly discriminate against individuals or groups of a particular religion, belief or gender.
Treating someone less favourably because they have made a claim or complaint of discrimination, or helped someone else to make a complaint (under the Equality Act), or made a disclosure (whistleblowing) under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998, or in either case the affected person is believed to have made or helped make, or is believed that they may make or help make a complaint or disclosure.
Examples of victimisation include:
- Being labelled a troublemaker
- Being left out
- Not being allowed to do something
I think I have experienced harassment, discrimination or victimisation or know someone who has
If you or someone else is in immediate danger:
On Birmingham Newman University Campus
- Call Security on 07535 519 828 or
- Press your nearest emergency alarm button. A map showing the emergency alarms across campus can be found here: Maps » Newman
Off Birmingham Newman University Campus
- If you are off campus, call 999.
The University takes incidents of harassment, discrimination and victimisation very seriously. If you believe you have experienced such behaviour, or think you know someone who has, you can find out more information about your options to report, disclose, access wellbeing support or contact an advisor here:
Practical tips
- Keep a note of what has happened – the time, date, where and anything that will help with an investigation, e.g details of any witnesses to the incident(s) aSo long as it is safe to do so, you can take a photo or film or record the incident.
- Ask any witnesses if they would be prepared to come forward and record their details if you have them.
- Bring a friend with you if you decide to go in person to report the incident to the police
- Get advice from the police or another specialist agency on how you can keep yourself safe
Take care of yourself
It’s important that you take care of yourself. Harassment, discrimination or victimisation can have a long-term and serious effect on your emotional and physical health. If you’ve heard something distressing or if something is troubling you, confidential help is available. Please look at how to get support page.
Report it
- Reporting harassment, discrimination or victimisation stops it from getting worse, stops it from happening to others and helps make communities safer
- You can tell us about your experience using by making a report or a disclosure:
- The police have created an information page outlining your reporting options. If you want to report something non-urgent to the police you can call 101
- Birmingham City Council have information on reporting a community safety concern.