Violations of personal rights include any breach of an individual right, such as physical and mental health, moral integrity and respect for individual freedoms or privacy. They therefore refer to all the physical, emotional and social attributes associated with a person as a whole.
Examples of violations of personal rights:
- Mockery, humiliation and insults
- The person is ignored or isolated
- The person is ridiculed and false rumours are spread about them
- They are assigned absurd, inappropriate or insulting tasks
- Physical threats or violence, assault or sexual harassment
These unacceptable behaviours may be deliberate, unintentional or the result of a failure to act. Nonetheless, regardless of intention, they can all constitute violations of personal rights.
Any action that is characteristic of sexual or psychological harassment is, by definition, a violation of personal rights. Violations of personal rights can take more serious forms, such as sexual harassment and psychological harassment.
The University of Lausanne does not tolerate any violation of personal rights A range of measures has been introduced in response to the various forms a violation of personal rights can take.
The following internal bodies are on hand to help in the event of a violation of personal rights that is not classed as psychological or sexual harassment (for example, a single incident):
- The Advice and Mediation Office
- UNIL Rectorate
- The Human Resources Department
- The Dean of your Faculty or your head of service.
The procedure for making a complaint or filing a report is as follows:
- If the subject of the complaint is a member of UNIL staff, the case falls under the authority of the Rectorate, which can investigate under the normally applicable rules and impose the corresponding sanctions;
- If the subject of the complaint is a student or has listener-only status, it can be sent to the Dean, who will forward it to the Rectorate for consideration by the Disciplinary Council;
- In cases that are covered by criminal law (defamation, libel, slander, insult, threat, physical aggression, sexual coercion or rape), you can file a complaint against the person concerned directly with the police.
