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Debate on sexualised violence, discrimination and abuse of power at KHM

10. Juli 2019

To promote and contribute to transparency, the Rectorate would like to inform once again - and herewith publicly - about the various steps taken since April 2018 in the context of the debate on sexualised violence, discrimination and abuse of power at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM):


  • June 26, 2018: First Plenary Assembly following an invitation by KHM students addressed to all members of KHM.
  • July 2, 2018: Establishment of an external Ombudsperson's Office and confidential point of contact for cases of sexual harassment.
  • July 10, 2018: First Plenary Assembly with all members of KHM.
  • July 13, 2018: Senate resolution on 'Principles for the Prevention of Humiliation, Discrimination, Sexual Harassment, Violence and Abuse of Power at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne' (published on the KHM homepage). Since autumn 2018, these principles are attached to all employment contracts and are part of the semester information for all students  (link).
  • September 5, 2018: The Anti-Discrimination Working Group was established (following an invitation addressed to all members of KHM). An internal process was initiated in order to enable an open exchange about the debate on discrimination, abuse of power, humiliation, sexual harassment and mobbing.
  • September 7, 2018: The scope of responsibility of the Ombudsperson's Office was extended to include also cases of discrimination and abuse of power.
  • Beginning of October 2018: General information was made public via e-mail, flyer and the KHM website by the Office of Equal Opportunity to support and advise on discrimination, abuse of power, mobbing, sexual harassment and violence.
  • October 8, 2018: The Office of Equal Opportunity informed about the debate and explained the function of the external Ombudsperson's Office (during the opening week of the winter semester).
  • October 30, 2018: As a first step in the process mentioned above, all members of KHM were asked to report any act experienced as discrimination, abuse of power or sexual harassment.
  • October 31, 2018: Third Plenary Assembly.
  • November 28, 2018: Workshop offered by the Office of Equal Opportunity on the topic of 'Gender and Diversity in Film and TV' as part of the LaDOC conference 'MACHT STRUKTUREN' (power structures).
  • January 8, 2019: The 'Open Letter from the Rector and Chronological Report on the Issue of Sexual Harassment, Discrimination and Abuse of Power' was sent to all members of KHM.
  • February 1, 2019: The Ombudsperson's Office explained and gave advice (during a Senate meeting open to all members of KHM) how to deal with sexual harassment at the workplace.
  • April 12 and May 10, 2019: Workshop offered by the Office of Equal Opportunity on the topic of gender-sensitive story telling.
  • June 14, 2019: Senate resolution and statement on the issue of sexualised violence, sexual abuse and abuse of power (published on July 2, 2019 via the KHM intranet).
  • July 3, 2019: The Anti-Discrimination Working Group and the Rectorate met and discussed the notifications and comments and agreed on further steps (advice to the institution by a consulting agency; guidelines on anti-discrimination and abuse of power, to be drawn up by a working group convened by the Senate.
  • July 8, 2019: All members of KHM were informed by e-mail - in an anonymised and neutralized way - about the notifications and comments that the Anti-Discrimination Working Group has received and about further concrete steps agreed upon.


This list is not complete. In addition, there has been a range of further actions initiated by the students of KHM.


Apart from that, we would like to point out yet again that for legal reasons we cannot provide any information on other steps taken by the Rectorate directly involving the teaching staff of KHM, nor on steps that go beyond what has already been communicated to all members of KHM on other occasions.


The Rectorate, July 10, 2019.

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