After EBU received an anonymous letter from a participant to the 11th General Assembly, stating that during the event, this person was verbally harassed by an accompanying person of one of the delegates, the EBU Board decided to immediately take action and formed a working group to analyse the situation and address this problem. As it was stressed, EBU has a duty to protect both the staff at the EBU office as well as the people participating in events that EBU organizes and or is actively present.
The working group, consisting of the 2nd Vice President, Barbara Martín Muñoz, the Secretary General, Maria Kyriacou and Board member Maria Thorstensson, carefully studied similar policies of other international bodies, including the World Blind Union’s Code of Contact approved by the Executive Committee in 2007.
Based on the investigation, the group identified the most important components which make an anti-harassment policy comprehensive and drafted The EBU Anti-harassment Policy which was presented and unanimously approved by the EBU Board during its online meeting on June 20, 2020.
The EBU anti-harassment policy will be soon uploaded on EBU’s website.