Awareness – so that everyone can feel free and safe

To ensure that teenagers and young adults are not exposed to discrimination or violence in bars and clubs, there is a need to raise awareness and exchange information. Victim Support beider Basel is also committed to this.

The Basel Youth Study from 2022 clearly shows that young people do not feel safe when they go out. This is particularly true for women. As a result, they avoid certain offers, withdraw and live in fear. There are similar results throughout Switzerland.

The same picture is shown by studies on festivals, for example the “Report on sexualized violence in clubs and festivals in Switzerland” by the Helvetiarockt association from 2023. Sexualized violence and other border violations are widespread in the festival, club and bar scene. In Basel, Kleinbasel is also a hotspot for violence and drug-related crime, which leads to intolerable conditions for the entire population.

When are limits exceeded?
In the middle of the year the revised Sexual Offenses Act comes into force. It enshrines the “no means no” rule. If someone performs a sexual act against the will of the victim, this is now considered rape. This was preceded by lengthy discussions, including whether a “yes only means yes” rule should be introduced, i.e. whether a person must explicitly consent to a sexual act. This has raised numerous questions in society and led to increased polarization around border violations. What is still allowed? When am I liable to prosecution? How individual are boundaries and how should they be communicated? And how can we demand that they are adhered to? These questions are of particular concern to young people.

Victim knowledge as a central motivation
OHbB knows the victims well and knows how great the suffering and fear are. The victims’ accounts are blatant. That must not happen. Clubs can help to prevent acts of violence or make it more difficult for them to occur. In addition, it is often difficult for young adults and adolescents to report a crime. As a result, many incidents do not come to the attention of the criminal prosecution authorities. The number of unreported cases is correspondingly high.

Opferhilfe beider Basel is convinced that prevention can make an important contribution to curbing assaults. Specifically, we want to actively promote awareness in our leisure time and when we go out. To this end, we are working with key partners to promote awareness in public spaces and in the festival, club and bar scene.

Definition and basic ideas of awareness
The concept of security is often understood negatively, in the sense of “no violence” or “no risks”. But a new, positive definition is more helpful: security as the subjective feeling that individual boundaries are respected and maintained. That people collectively take responsibility for the well-being of their fellow human beings. This is only possible if the conditions are met to restore this security, self-determination and ability to act in the event of a boundary being crossed.

What is awareness?
The Awareness Academy is committed to ensuring that discriminatory structures and mechanisms in club culture are recognized and specifically counteracted. She understands the term awareness to mean “the awareness of and attention to situations in which the boundaries of others are or have been transgressed”. “All forms of discrimination and (sexualized) violence” can play a role here. At the same time, it is also about sensitivity to a person’s well-being.

What is the goal of awareness? For the academy, it is about “ensuring that all people can feel as comfortable, free and safe as possible, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, skin color, origin, appearance and physical abilities.” This awareness and attention cannot be ensured by the police alone as the “guardian” of the conventional understanding of security. Various players and institutions need to work together to achieve this goal and commit to it.

What victim support is committed to
OHbB took an important first step in 2019 with the launch of the code word “Is Luisa here?”. Initially, these were information events for employees from bars and clubs. Since fall 2023, we have also been offering workshops on the topic of “safer place”. This involves behavioral training for employees so that they know better what to do in specific situations. For example, if a person needs help because they have been harassed and comes to the counter with the question “Is Luisa here?”. When it comes to the question of how a business can be developed into a safer place for guests. Or how a bar can live awareness.

This is also how the collaboration with imagine came about. Imagine is an incredibly great project and festival. So many young people are involved and make countless inspiring attractions possible. Imagine was involved with awareness at an early stage. Together with the Association of Basel Psychologists (PPB), we want to go one step further and help the aspect of awareness to have a broad impact.

With the PPB, we are working together with Imagine to make the festival in Basel even more fun, attractive and safe. Every less harassment and boundary violation is a success for society as a whole!

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