The UAB Senate discusses the situation in Gaza, the anti-harassment protocol and the grievance syndicate

Before presenting a series of current information about the institution, UAB Rector Javier Lafuente recalled that a year ago the UAB Senate approved a declaration of rejection of the systematic violence exercised by the State of Israel against the Palestinian civilian population, as well as a series of measures to be taken by the University. One year after that declaration, “the situation, far from improving, has worsened to unbearable limits, with intentional attacks against a civilian population that is persecuted and exterminated with despicable methods of warfare, such as allowing children and civilians to starve”.

In view of this situation, Rector Lafuente stated that “I cannot fail to reiterate my condemnation and that of my Governing Team of this genocide that is being perpetrated in the Gaza Strip, on the other shore of the Mediterranean, and we demand once again compliance with international law and an end to the colonisation of settlements, the occupation, looting, expulsion and apartheid carried out by the State of Israel in Palestine”.

The rector regretted that “our action as a university is more limited than we would like” but that now, according to very recent information, the EU is contemplating for the first time the revision of the 2000 association agreement with the State of Israel: “this suspension would be a first, very basic step, but it remains to be seen if the EU will be consistent with the facts and adopt sanctions for violation of fundamental rights”. The universities, he defended, will continue “to exert pressure from our positions to force a change of course in the European Union's policy towards Israel”.

Òscar Jané, vice-rector for International Relations and coordinator, as a member of the Governing Team, of the follow-up commission on the agreements contained in the Declaration of the Senate on the situation in Gaza one year ago, reviewed the actions carried out by the university on the conflict.

On the first point of the declaration, the UAB has maintained and strengthened, through its own statements or joint statements of entities of which it forms part such as the ACUP and CRUE, the rejection of the systematic violence carried out by the Israeli army against the Palestinian civilian population. Jané recalled that there have been numerous activities of awareness and denunciation in which they have participated in one way or another in the past year.

On the second point of the declaration, Jané confirmed that in September the UAB suspended the only mobility agreements with Israeli universities that were still in force, with the universities of Bezalel and Tel Aviv, and “no new collaboration in terms of exchange programmes has been signed”.

Regarding the third point, the UAB conveyed to the entire community the demand that research and technology transfer activities should in no case be in contradiction with the university's firm commitment to the culture of peace. With regard to research financed by the European Union, Rector Lafuente sent in June a letter to various European authorities, including the President of the Commission Ursula von der Leyen, in which he urged the EU to put an immediate block on the participation of Israeli institutions in all projects financed with European funds. A demand which, he regretted, was not “very well received”.

On the fourth point of the statement, Óscar Jané explained that five scholarships have been awarded under the extraordinary Ajuts#UABRefugi grants programme for students from Palestine for bachelor's, master's and PhD degrees endowed with 148,000 euros but that, unfortunately, three of these grantholders have not yet been able to travel to the UAB due to bureaucratic problems: “some authorities encourage us to host but then other authorities set up bureaucratic obstacles”.

Finally,  Vice-Rector Jané explained that in reference to the fifth and last point of the declaration from one year ago, it was not until December that the follow-up commission for these commitments could be set up due to the lack of members who wanted to form part. Once the commission was created, it “has met three times and will do so again in June”.

Rector Lafuente thanked the vice-rector for International Relations for the “intense and rigorous” work of following up on the agreements signed in May last year and particularly for the sensitivity shown and the effort made to be able to welcome Palestinian students to the UAB despite bureaucratic obstacles.

The representative of the PTGAS group valued the actions carried out within the limitations of a university but asked to go further: “we need more involvement from everyone in view of the seriousness of the facts”. The representatives of the student body asked for more dissemination of the actions carried out and, referring to the pro-Palestinian encampment installed on campus, highlighted the need to intensify the protest against the actions of the State of Israel.

Reports on anti-harassment protocol and from the Office of the Ombuds

In another item on the agenda, Esther Zapater, secretary general and responsible for equality policies at the UAB, presented the Report on the implementation of the Protocol to prevent and act against sexual harassment, harassment based on sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, and gender-based violence in the year 2024.

Chapter 6 of the Protocol establishes the procedure for action in the event of a complaint regarding the conduct and areas of application defined. In accordance with the provisions of the Protocol, the procedure for action in cases of complaints was activated each time there was a request and was effectively applied, evaluating the information presented in the requests by the Legal Office and the Technical Advisory Committee (CTA).

In 2024 there were five requests for intervention by the CTA: “two cases refer to complaints against male students, while the other three refer to complaints against male professors”. In the cases of complaints against students, the cases were filed because the UAB did not have disciplinary powers or because it could not clarify the responsibility of the facts behind the complaint. In the cases of complaints against professors, one case was closed and measures were established to accompany the complainant, and the second case was suspended due to the judicialisation of the case. In the third case, a disciplinary file was opened with the result of a reprimand and formative measures.

In the previous report, relating to 2023, a disciplinary file and an informative file on male students were mentioned, which were in progress at the time of closing that year's report. In the case of the informative file, academic corrective measures were established (separation of spaces), training and accompaniment.

Zapater recalled that the protocol also includes preventive measures and support measures, as well as information and awareness actions to inform of the instruments available to the UAB to act in situations of gender-based violence and LGBTI-phobia, and that these actions are carried out permanently throughout the year.

Ombudswoman María Jesús Espuny presented the 2024 Annual Report of the UAB Office of the Ombuds, with the communications received and the actions undertaken over the past year. As she explained, to be the UAB's ombudsperson is to be “at the disposal of the university community, to move all the mechanisms to reach a result that helps to improve the functioning of the UAB and its members”. In 2024, the Office of the Ombuds of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona dealt with a total of 205 cases. This figure is higher than in recent years and shows, according to Espuny, that the university community “is increasingly aware of the institution”.