- Incident report from memory (PDF)
- Counselling report (PDF)
What to do in case of discrimination?
People who experience discriminatory treatment of themselves or others should not silently put up with it. Take action, get help and notify the relevant authorities. For supervisors and teachers, it is part of their responsibility to take appropriate action.
It is not always easy to name and recognise discriminatory behaviour. For more information, visit the page What is discrimination? If you are unsure or have questions, you can always contact the Anti-Discrimination Office at Ruhr University or other internal counselling services.
If you are affected by discriminatory behaviour
- Take your own feelings and experiences of boundary violations seriously.
- Remember: You have done nothing wrong.
- Don’t keep quiet about the incident, but talk to someone you trust.
- Don’t put up with discriminatory treatment, but reject it firmly and immediately. Taking action promptly increases the chance that the discriminatory behaviour will stop.
- Make a note of every incident with date, name, place and possible witnesses (see “incident report from memory” under materials).
- Seek counselling and take advantage of counselling and complaint options
Materials for the counselling session
File a police complaint
You should file a complaint with the police especially in cases of sexual violence or stalking that make you feel threatened. Offences against sexual autonomy, such as coercion or rape, are offences where the police are obliged to investigate the report.
You should also consider filing a complaint with the police in cases of racially or otherwise motivated insults, threats or even violence.
If you can’t commit to filing a complaint straight away, please contact an in-house counselling centre at Ruhr University or third-party counselling services as soon as possible.
As a supervisor / teacher
- Be a role model. Treat all of your staff and students equally and fairly and don’t favour anyone for any reason.
- Foster a friendly, supportive atmosphere among your staff and students. Ensure open and respectful interaction in your courses.
- Make use of existing further training opportunities for yourself and your department.
- Share information about the anti-discrimination policy at Ruhr University (from Dec 2022).
- Make it perfectly clear that you will not tolerate discriminatory behaviour.
- Investigate every complaint, try to help the people affected by it and, above all, put a stop to the discriminatory behaviour.
- Don’t show anyone up.
- If you are concerned that discriminatory behaviour is taking place, seek a personal, confidential discussion with the person affected by it.
- Consider together which steps should be taken.
- Under no circumstances should you do anything against the wishes of the person affected by discriminatory treatment.
If necessary, refer to the relevant counselling centres at Ruhr University.
As colleagues resp. fellow students
- Take a stand against discrimination.
- Offer your support to persons affected by it.
- Share information about the anti-discrimination policy at Ruhr University (from Dec 2022) and about contacts and counselling centres at Ruhr University.
- Under no circumstances should you do anything against the wishes of the person affected by discriminatory treatment.
- If you are unsure about how you can best provide support, ask one of the contact persons or counselling centres for information
Important: Report incidents
In order to effectively protect members of Ruhr University against any form of discrimination and to take action against the harassing individuals, it is important that the relevant offices learn of such incidents; this will also enable them to set up appropriate measures.
RUB Anti-Discrimination Office