The commission for the Monitoring of the Implementation of Strategies for the Prevention of the Practice of Harassment in Higher Education Institutions has the mission to monitor the adoption of strategies with a view to preventing and combating harassment, directed at teachers, researchers, non-teaching staff and students.

"Harassment, in any of its forms, moral or sexual, constitutes a social phenomenon, transversal to various entities, public and private, with serious consequences for the physical and psychological health of the victims, which disproportionately affects women, and which it is important to prevent and combat", reads the text accompanying the publication of a joint dispatch from the Ministers of Education, Science and Innovation, Fernando Alexandre, of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security, Maria do Rosário Palma Ramalho, and of Youth and Modernization, Margarida Balseiro Lopes.

The measure is justified by the need to build healthy and safe environments and promote a continuous culture of transparency, integrity, good faith, exemption and respect.

"There has been a reinforcement of procedures for the prevention of the practice of harassment in higher education institutions, which involve the adoption of codes of conduct and appropriate reporting channels, and it is desirable, in this context, to promote awareness-raising actions directed at teachers, researchers, non-teaching staff and students in higher education institutions", states the text.

The commission is coordinated by a representative from the government area of education and science and will have a representative from the ministry of labour, solidarity and social security and another from youth and modernization.

This body also includes representatives from the Commission for Equality in Labour and Employment, the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality, the Council of Rectors of Portuguese Universities and the Coordinating Council of Polytechnic Higher Institutes.

The commission also includes representatives from the Portuguese Association of Private Higher Education, the Academic Federation of University Sports, university and polytechnic higher education students, to be appointed within 10 days.

The necessary logistical and administrative support for the functioning of the commission is provided by the Directorate-General for Higher Education.

The commission is temporary, with a duration of six months from the date of publication of this dispatch. At the end of the mandate, a report on the results of the work carried out must be submitted.

Read Also: Protests for peace in Palestine? Higher Education asks for respect for students (Portuguese version)