The board of Hyeena ry has approved these principles in the board meeting on April 17th 2023 and commits itself to follow them.

The purpose of Hyeena ry is to contribute to our students well-being and communality while making our pack a good and safe space for everyone to be themselves.

The principles for a safer space are to be followed in Hyeena’s events.

“The principles and courses of action for a safer space exist to create a space where everyone aims to build an equal, respectful and open atmosphere and discussion.”

In practice this means that everyone has a right to participate in our events and be a member of our student organization without the fear of any kind of discrimination, racism, inappropriate behaviour neither sexual, physical nor verbal harassment.

“Discrimination means that a person is treated worse than others based on some personal feature. Every person has a right for equal treatment and discrimination is prohibited in several national laws, in Non-Discrimination Act, criminal law and in international human rights treaties. There is stated in the Non-Discrimination Act that nobody shall face discrimination based on their age, nationality, language, religion, convictions, opinions, political activity, trade union activity, family relations, state of health, disability, sexual orientation or other related reasons.”

– Non-Discrimination Ombudsman, Syrjintä.fi

”Harassment means discrimination that is forbidden in the Non-Discrimination Act. In the law harassment is defined as behaviour which insults a person’s human dignity purposefully or factually. By harassment a person creates forbidden discrimination such as sexual orientation, origin or disability based degrading, humiliating, threatening, hostile or aggressive atmosphere.”

– Non-Discrimination Ombudsman, Syrjintä.fi

”Sexual harassment means verbal, non-verbal or physical, by nature sexual non-consented behaviour which purposefully or factually insults a person’s mental or physical integrity.”

– Ombudsman for Equality, Tasa-arvo.fi

”Racism as a concept means making a value judgement of an alleged group of people based on their ethnicity, colour of skin, nationality, culture, native language or religion and making them of lower rank than other groups of people.

-The Finnish Red Cross

To guarantee the principles for a safer space we oblige every participant of our events and members of our student organization to follow the guidelines listed down below. Every member of Hyeena ry’s board has also committed to act based on the principles for a safer space.

• Respect others and face everyone as they are.
• Respect a person’s self-determination. Don’t touch without permission. Remember that you cannot know a person’s boundaries without asking. Ask for space if you need it. 

• Don’t mock, degrade or embarrass anyone with your speech, behaviour or actions. Don’t gossip or judge others. Don’t purposely leave others out of the group.

• Don’t make assumptions about anyone’s sexuality, gender, nationality, ethnicity, religion, values, socioeconomical background, health or ability to function. 

• Don’t pressure anyone to drink alcohol or judge a person’s decision to not drink alcohol. Everyone has a right to decide on their use of alcohol. Remember that you are responsible for your behaviour even under the influence of alcohol.

• Give space. Try to give everyone a chance to be a part of the conversation. Don’t walk over others’ opinions and give a turn to speak. Respect others’ privacy and handle delicate themes with respect.

• Learn to recognize your own prejudices and behavioral patterns that they cause and how these patterns affect others.

• Listen and learn. Receive new themes, people and ideas without prejudice. Face an oncoming thing and situation as a chance to learn new things and improve. 

• Remember that words have an impact. Everyone experiences things differently. For someone a joke can be harmless when someone else can find it offensive or unpleasant. 

• Don’t belittle others’ experiences.

• Apologize if you have hurt purposefully or unpurposefully others.

• Don’t hesitate to intervene if you notice inappropriate behaviour. It is everyone’s responsibility to interfere when we notice discrimination, harassment or otherwise inappropriate behaviour.

• Take care that by your own actions you are promoting and creating a safer and equal space for everyone.

The event organizer has a right to discontinue a number or for example a sitz song if they break the principles for safer space or are otherwise inappropriate. 

The event organizer / members of the board have a right to remove immediately an inappropriately behaving person from an event. In these situations we aim to act as discreetly as possible.

If you experience harassment, discrimination or any other kind of unpleasant or inappropriate behaviour, try to primarily bring it up with the person involved. People make mistakes and by conversation you can give them a chance to change their way of acting. If you cannot resolve the issue or you can’t/ don’t want to bring up the subject yourself, then please contact Anti-Harassment Contact Person

• Tell them what you have experienced or what has happened.
• Continue discussion with the Anti-Harassment Contact Person to resolve the situation. Remember that everything happens with your consent and the issue will be driven forward as much as you wish.
• Remember that you can also contact an Anti-Harassment Contact Person even if you don’t want anything to be done but you want support.

If you come across a situation where someone is being harassed and you want to report it:

Please contact an Anti-Harassment Contact Person and tell them what you have seen or what has happened. The Contact Person will then be in touch with parties involved in the situation and continue to resolve the situation with them if you wish.

Hyeena ry has nominated Nea Pekkola (neapek@uef.fi) and Joni Hoffrén (jonihoff@uef.fi) as our student organization’s Anti-Harassment Contact Persons. You can contact them confidentially  in case you experience any kind of inappropriate behaviour in our events or at the university. The Anti-Harassment Contact Persons will help, support and guide you and also interfere in these situations if asked. You will find the Contact Persons’ phone numbers from Hyeena tiedottaa -WhatsApp -groups’ information box.

In case neither of the Anti-Harassment Contact Persons are in the event personally, you can contact the event organizer/s or any members of the board that are present. You can also give anonymous feedback with the feedback form. You can also contact any other member of the board .

In case the other party in a harassment situation is a representative of the board of Hyeena ry, you can still be confidentially in contact with the Anti-Harassment Contact Persons or directly in contact with the Chairperson of the board. If some of the representatives mentioned above have acted disruptively or inappropriately and you feel that you cannot broach the subject with any member of the board, please contact the Anti-Harassment Contact Person of ISYY. You will find their contact information from ISYY’s website.