What is Together ?
Together is a unit specialised in dealing with situations related to gender violence, harassment and discrimination. It receives any UCLouvain community member who is a victim or witness of such violence, whether they are a student or staff member. The Together unit acts in complete confidentiality and independently of the UCLouvain authorities.
Missions
- provide a safe place to talk
- explain possible approaches within UCLouvain and building your case
- referral to specialised services, if necessary
- provide support throughout the process
Together also contributes to the development and implementation of UCLouvain’s prevention policy, in collaboration with stakeholders (authorities, staff members, students, gender policy team, associations, etc.).
Approach
Together takes a gendered approach to the issue of sexual violence. This means that the unit does not approach sexual violence from a neutral point of view but from the fact that sexual violence affects women disproportionately and is committed in the majority of cases by men.
Together is a place to talk. No matter what you experienced, you will be welcomed in a caring and non-judgmental way. The interview will be conducted at your own pace and according to your needs. It is also possible to simply express yourself and be listened to and not pursue additional support, if you so wish.
Together suggests actions to take and can support you in your efforts. Depending on what you experienced and its impact on you, we will review together possible actions, such as:
- verbalising your feelings and fears (e.g. of possible reprisals)
- mobilising your own resources and thinking about who in your family and community could best help you through this ordeal
- finding the best way to talk about it with those around you
- explaining possible internal procedures
- explaining the procedure for filing a police complaint
- providing legal information and building your case (gather evidence)
- referrals to potentially helpful organisations (CPVS, SAPV, police, IEFH, Unia, etc.)
* Mediation and conciliation can never be an option for people who have suffered sexual or gender-based violence (sexual assault, rape, sexual harassment), as it is neither humanly nor legally possible to offer any form of conflict resolution to its victims.
Together supports you
You can call on the unit even if :
- you have already taken steps on your own
- you initially decided to do nothing after the event but would now like to receive clarification on your situation
- the events took place some time ago
At Together, a witness statement (description) can also be filed.
Together: for what kind of violence ?
The unit is open to any victim or witness of :
- sexual and/or gender-based violence, such as sexual assault, sexual harassment or rape
- cyberviolence, such as discriminatory comments, revenge porn or cyberstalking
- bullying, psychological and physical violence driven by discrimination, such as sexism, racism, ageism, ableism, classism, homophobia, grossophobia
- discrimination
Grounds of discrimination are categorised according to the law that addresses them :
- nationality, an “alleged race”, skin colour, descent or national or ethnic origin, covered by the law of 30 July 1981; “racial grounds” do not include nationality
- gender and gender-related grounds, covered by gender law
- age, sexual orientation, civil status, birth, wealth, religious or philosophical beliefs, political beliefs, trade union beliefs, language, current or future state of health, disability, physical or genetic characteristics or social origin, covered by anti-discrimination law
Together for who ?
Together welcomes and supports anyone affected by violence, and aims to include the entire university population in its comprehensive violence prevention policy, whether:
- you are a victim or a witness
- you are a student or staff member
- you are heterosexual and/or cisgender or belong to the LGBTQIA+ community
- the incident took place on or off campus (e.g. at an internship site), in the public or private domain, in physical or virtual space
- the accused is:
- another UCLouvain student
- a UCLouvain academic, scientific or administrative staff member
- a third party outside UCLouvain (person at the internship site, member of another university, suppliers, etc.)
- the incident(s) occurred recently or in the past
- you are directly concerned by acts of violence, or wish to discuss the subject in the context of a prevention activity.
Who is Together ?
Stéphanie Jacquet is in charge of dealing with harassment, gender violence and discrimination at UCLouvain. She is a lawyer specialised in dealing with sexual violence and victim care. Before joining UCLouvain she worked for SOS Viol (“SOS Rape”) for nearly nine years.
She can receive and support you in person on Mondays and Tuesdays and via Teams on Thursday mornings.
If you do not want to talk to Together, others are available to listen to you within UCLouvain or externally.