Harassment and discrimination
Dealing with harassment can be a major challenge for clubs. Not only can it reflect badly on the sport, it can deter participation at all levels. To help you understand the types of behaviour that form the basis of harassment and discrimination, here are some useful definitions and references.
What is harassment?
Harassment is any behaviour by a person or organisation which:
- is offensive, abusive, belittling or threatening
- is directed at any other person or a group or people
- refers to a particular characteristic of that person or group of people.
The point of view of the person receiving the harassment is what helps determine whether an action or behaviour is considered harassment. This behaviour must also be assessed objectively in that it must be the type of behaviour that a reasonable person would find unwelcome.
Types of harassment
Harassment for sports and recreation clubs can be divided into:
Sexual harassment
Sexual harassment includes:
- an unwelcome sexual advance
- an unwelcome request for sexual favours
- unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature (including a statement, orally or in writing, of a sexual nature)
Abusive behaviour
Abuse is a form of harassment and includes:
- physical abuse (eg. assault)
- emotional abuse (eg. blackmail, repeated requests or demands)
- neglect (eg. failure to provide the basic physical and emotional necessities of life)
- abuse of power which the harasser holds over the harassed (eg. coach-player or manager-player relationship)
Discrimination
Discrimination is treating or proposing to treat a person less favourably than someone else in certain areas of public life on the basis of an attribute or personal characteristic they have.
Attributes and characteristics include:
- age
- disability
- marital status
- parental/carer status
- physical features
- political belief/activity
- pregnancy
- race
- religious belief/activity
- sex or gender
- sexual orientation
- transgender orientation.
The main activities where discrimination can occur in clubs are:
- employment (including unpaid employment)
- provision of goods and services
- selection or otherwise of any person for a competition or team
- entry or otherwise of any player or other person to any competition
- obtaining or retaining membership (including the rights and privileges of membership).
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