Trigger warning: This article contains extensive discussion of sexual violence throughout
Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) held further action today in protest of what they describe as a lack of protections in place for survivors of sexual assault who report acts of sexual misconduct to the Junior Dean.
The demonstrators, who are a part of the Union’s “protect each other not rapists” campaign, saw an effigy hung outside of the Junior Dean’s office. “Stop protecting rapists” was written on the effigy’s torso.
Speaking to Trinity News prior to the action, TCDSU Welfare and Equality Officer Hamza Bana said “We also have confessions from what students gave us”, referencing anonymous confessions students were invited to submit to the TCDSU of “what they thought about rapists.”
These anonymous confessions were stuck on the outside of the Junior Dean’s office by those involved in the protest.
As noted by Bana, these confessions included what students thought about rapists and “what they think should be done to rapists”. The confessions also detail students’ own interactions with sexual assault, personal accounts of how they have dealt with rapists ,and also their own personal cases that were investigated by Junior Dean Donall Mac Donaill.
Some of the displayed confessions read: “remove their reproductive organs,” “I want to kill them” and “rapists deserve public castration and death sentences”.
When asked if those who submitted anonymous submissions knew that their confessions would be publicly displayed, Bana confirmed they did not.
“That was another oversight by me” he said.
Bana continued by saying that personal accounts, names, and personal details were redacted and not included due to “GDPR” purposes.
Speaking to Trinity News before the demonstration, Bana described the method of visual protest as a “quick attention grab.”
“We felt that as a group as a collective using the bodies as a visual quick attention grab to the campaign, of course, invokes, like, violent imagery and it’s a massive shock factor.”
“I feel with rape you have to be equally as shocking, because I think we are way past the point of just being like, guys, hey, here’s a poster about all the facts and figures.”
“It’s like, no. We are long past the point of you guys trying to have you guys listen to us. We are now grabbing you by the ear for your attention and at this point so that’s why we use the bodies” Bana continued.
When asked how the idea to display these actions came about Bana said:
“Honestly it wasn’t my idea. As you can clearly see I’m a man. I’m only here as a facilitating factor to allow people to come in and voice their opinions and feel how they think is best to voice this issue and how to best enact change.”
The initial demonstration did not include any signposting to supports for those affected by the themes discussed; a detail that Bana called an “oversight”.
“Usually for every other campaign that we do we always put in our statements please go to Hamza to speak with me; but since Jenny was out this week and I had to do a lot of other things so there was oversight by me and I forgot to include it in the statement.”
“So of course, if you have even been affected by sexual assault, or this instance, of violent imagery of hanging a body does invoke thoughts of war stricken countries, or even suicide, I would 100% reach out to myself, because this is very violent imagery,” the Welfare and Equality officer said further.
“The group felt that we had to use such evocative imagery to just again grab the attention because this is such a massive problem on our campus, in our country globally,” Bana concluded, adding that “you have to grow their attention.”
It “depends on how this goes,” Bana said when asked if this was the penultimate part of the campaign.
When asked if any complaints regarding the campaign had been issued to the office of the Junior Dean, Bana noted: “nothing that we have heard of so far.”
A statement by TCDSU following the demonstration said: “As it stands, the process [of the Junior Dean] does very little to protect the wellbeing of survivors when attempting to hold their abuser to account”.
“Abusers weaponise these processes by submitting malicious complaints when survivors try to protect each other and their fellow students. This silencing creates fear among the students trying to protect their peers”. The statement further claimed.
The TCDSU also stated that the current complaints procedure is “overly-drawn out” and contains “very little communication to the survivor as to where the investigation stage is”.
“Survivors are not allowed more than one ‘support person’ throughout the entire investigation as seen in section 6.3 of the Sexual Misconduct Policy”, the TCDSU statement continued.
“All persons connected with the matter must maintain confidentiality”, it said.
“This includes refraining from discussing any aspect of the process, or its existence, with any person, with the exception of their chosen representative/advisor of support.”
“While this does not bar a person from seeking medical/counselling services however, we often see these medical notes can be used against the survivors in potential legal action.”
TCDSU outlined the following demands:
A complete overhaul of the Sexual Misconduct policy which prioritises the wellbeing of the survivors of sexual violence,
A reform of the manner in which bullying allegations related to Sexual Misconduct are handled,
A removal of any and all delays throughout the investigation process with greater transparency between all parties as to which stage the investigation is in.
“We look forward to working with the College and Junior Dean to work on specifics of the new policy”, the statement concluded.
College have been contacted for comment.
The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre is available to contact through its 24-hour helpline at 1800 77 8888 for anyone affected by issues related to sexual violence or any other subject matter discussed in this article.
