A hundred students demonstrated this Thursday afternoon in Louvain-la-Neuve to support the victims of sexist and sexual violence at UCLouvain. An action that occurs after the judgment of the labor court which gives reason to a biology teacher victim of psychological violence in her workplace.
Following his conviction, the university appealed which made the demonstrators jump. They are asking for concrete measures to put an end to situations of harassment.
The AGL, the student movement of the PTB Comac, Balance ton folklore and the Young Socialists therefore called for a gathering of students, academics and staff of UCLouvain, as well as the population of Louvain-la-Neuve in front of the University halls, from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Justine Havelange, the president of the General Assembly of Students (AGL), pleaded for the establishment of “an independent body that handles complaints. For the moment it is referred to the Vice-Rector for Student Affairs who must give a decision alone. There is no advisory space to render this opinion. Often the answer we are given is: ‘We have to go to the police, we have to go to court directly’.“
And to add:There is also the desire to have something upstream. Prevention, awareness, training that would be mandatory for the entire university community.“
An “insolent” legal appeal and the need to replace those “who are not in their place”
Present on site, the professor at UCLouvain Jean-Pascal Van Ypersele, who has been denouncing abuse for several months, also spoke. After citing a few testimonies from victims whose case has not yet been dealt with by the courts, he addressed himself directly to the academic authorities.
“The authorities of UCLouvain, starting with the Rector and each member of the Rectoral Council, should understand that appealing against the decision of the President of the Labor Court of Wavre would be an insolent act, which will further damage the reputation of the university than the situations condemned by the Tribunal“, did he declare.
According Jean-Pascal Van Ypersele, “ct is only by clearly acknowledging the mistakes of the past, by making a clean sweep of inadequate procedures, by establishing an ambitious plan of transition to a university at the forefront of respect for all members of its community, that the university will progress“.
The professor believes that, in order to achieve this, it will be necessary “replace or transfer a series of people who are not in their place in the Rectoral Council or in the administration, and appoint competent people with the necessary empathy“.