Active Bystander

26 Apr 2024

How to safely intervene when witnessing harassment or discrimination

At Manchester as part of our EDI Strategy we are keen to strive for greater inclusion understanding and nurturing a sense of belonging for all. Everyone has a part to play in that, which also involves calling out or challenging inappropriate behaviour.

There may be moments at work or in life when we see or hear something that seems problematic, even potentially dangerous. These incidents can manifest in many ways for example in biases or stereotypes about people or groups we consider different from ourselves. This can be a way to ‘other’ people, due to misconceptions that might be held about that individual or group not fitting in to what we feel are accepted norms and behaviours.

For example, people can be the target of unwelcome or aggressive, harassing, or discriminatory behaviour because of their religion, faith or belief, gender, ethnicity or race, sexual orientation, disability to name a few.

These perceived stereotypes can also become heightened by wider issues at play such as politics, conflicts or peer or family influence. They do however lay the foundation for how people may treat or interact with one another. This can be in a civil respectful way even in disagreement or it can potentially become more serious e.g. bullying, harassment of people whether verbally or physically or via microaggressions. 

When such incidents occur, people may choose to intervene as they recognise that the behaviour is inappropriate or unacceptable or they not feel safe to speak up or intervene whether due to concerns about personal safety, becoming the target themselves, escalating matters, or waiting to see if other people have witnessed the situation and if they have acted.

At Manchester as part of our EDI Strategy we are keen to strive for greater inclusion understanding and nurturing a sense of belonging for all. Everyone has a part to play in that, which also involves calling out or challenging inappropriate behaviour.

Active Bystander Training 

If you would like to find out more about what Active Bystander training involves including strategies to safely intervene, please read EDI Projects Officer, Steph Danson’s blog and contact the EDI team if you would like to attend Active Bystander training: equalityanddiversity@manchester.ac.uk. 

Report and Support 

Report and Support is our platform for staff, students, and external visitors to report incidents of harassment, discrimination and bullying to name a few. This is a service that is run by trained Harassment Support Advisers (across academic and professional services) and supported by the EDI Team.