Building Safer Organisations Guidelines - HAP International

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Complaints brought by someone other than the survivor of abuse A complaint can be made by anyone who is concerned that a staff member has engaged in exploitation or abuse of a person of concern. So, the complaint does not have to be made by the alleged survivor. Indeed, in some cases the survivor will not agree to provide testimony or may want the investigation to be discontinued. While the survivor’s wishes should be considered, particularly when there is risk of physical, emotional or social harm, s/he does not ‘own’ the allegation. S/he is a witness just as others are witnesses. Ultimately, it will be a question for the investigation management team whether and how to proceed, considering issues such as the wishes of the survivor, the potential for future abuse and harm, the reputation of the organisation, the organisation’s responsibility to create a safe and abuse-free environment, national law and the ability of the investigators to reach a conclusion on the available evidence. iii. Make sure people of concern are aware of their rights and the mechanisms to enforce them A mechanism will only be effective if people of concern know their rights and how they can enforce them. At a minimum, people of concern need to know: • the definition of sexual exploitation and abuse as per the SG’s Bulletin and the organisation’s Code of Conduct • that they have a right to be free of sexual exploitation and abuse, including specific details of their food and non-food entitlements • how they can complain, including the stages, timeframes, rules, decision-making processes, participants and responsibilities involved in a complaint • to whom they can complain and where that person is located (i.e. contact details of the organisation’s focal points) • what steps they can take to ensure confidentiality and what steps the organisation will take to ensure safety and confidentiality Organisations will communicate these messages most effectively if they consider: • their audience/s – what is the gender, age, physical ability, language, level of literacy and ethnicity of the target population? • the available communication tool/s – it is better to advertise through posters, dramas, focus groups, local action and/or community groups? • the core message – what does the target population really need to know? • the budget – how can they reach the widest cross-section of the community within budgetary constraints? b. How to create complaint mechanisms that are effective for staff Staff members will also learn of exploitation and abuse when working with people of concern. And they too experience barriers to reporting, such as lack of knowledge about SEA, fear of criticism from colleagues and fear of damage to their careers. Specialised staff complaints procedures can help address these issues and are part of effective complaint mechanisms. i. Raise staff awareness of SEA Organisations cannot assume that staff members are any more aware of SEA issues than other members of the community. Staff induction manuals should contain the organisation’s SEA policies. Those policies should then be discussed in inductions sessions and be available in all duty stations. Staff should also be reminded of standards of conduct, complaint procedures and early-warning signs regularly during their service. ii. Make reporting mandatory Once staff are aware of and understand SEA, mandatory reporting requirements may help overcome their fears of sharing concerns about colleagues. Mandatory reporting makes individual staff members less responsible for the ‘trouble’ they may be perceived as causing, since they remove discretion to report. Effective mandatory reporting mechanism will tell staff unambiguously: • when to report • to whom to report • how to report • what will happen if they do not report (including possible disciplinary measures) 9
iii. Institute policies to protect whistle-blowers (and punish malicious or vexatious complainants) Mandatory reporting mechanisms work best in conjunction with whistle-blowing policies which enable organisations to discipline staff members for retaliating against a colleague who reports concerns of SEA or otherwise cooperates with an investigation. Effective whistle-blowing policies clearly identify the type of prohibited conduct and the consequences of engaging in conduct that breaches the policy. They also make clear that deliberately reporting false or misleading allegations is itself misconduct and grounds for dismissal. c. How to create complaint mechanisms that facilitates interagency cooperation Organisations may handle SEA complaints that involve personnel from other agencies, whether as complainants, witnesses or SOCs. This can create a number of issues, including: • How and to whom should people of concern complain? • How can investigators access information in the control of other agencies without compromising confidentiality? • How can investigators avoid re-interviewing witnesses? • How can organisations and managers supervise a process which is at least partially outside their control? Though organisations have their own cultures and strategies for dealing with their operating environments, they can minimise the potential problems by developing frameworks for joint investigations and information sharing 4 . i. Steps for developing and implementing effective collaborative complaint mechanisms Presuming that there is no existing collaborative mechanism in the region, organisations should consider which agencies, teams and personnel they are most likley to have contact with and in what ways they may need to cooperate 5 . Having identified possible partners, they should take feedback from local people and design their mechanism together. Key questions for partners are: • How will the organisations alert each other to complaints while maintaining confidentiality? • What are the potential partners’ systems regarding confidentiality? • Who will know about the complaint within each organisation? How much will they know? • What are each organisations’ responsibilities and reporting obligations? • Who will manage the investigation? • How will partners choose investigators? • How will they organise and fund a joint investigation? • How will they deal with problems that might arise between organisations? • Who should receive the report? • If there are multiple SOCs from multiple agencies, how will organisations ensure that penalties/responses are consistent? Organisations that address these questions when developing their complaint mechanisms will avoid compromised investigations due to inter-agency conflicts. 4 One such framework was recently developed in Kenya. Fourteen agencies working with refugee populations in Kenya developed inter-agency protocols for preventing and responding to SEA. This programme relied on the BSO materials and trainings to develop agreed standards and safeguarding strategies. 5 For example, is it more likely that you will be conducting joint investigations or sharing information about former personnel? 10
Page 1 and 2: Building Safer Organisations GUIDEL
Page 4 and 5: TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ....
Page 6 and 7: INTRODUCTION 1. Who are these Guide
Page 8 and 9: ➤ CHAPTER 1 Before the allegation
Page 12 and 13: ➤ CHAPTER 2 From allegation to in
Page 14 and 15: community; it may even lead others
Page 16 and 17: d. Who should give confirmation and
Page 18 and 19: c. Qualifications of investigators
Page 20 and 21: a. What substantive rules have alle
Page 22 and 23: Special considerations for collecti
Page 24 and 25: 4. Where should witnesses be interv
Page 26 and 27: iii. Who should conduct the intervi
Page 28 and 29: A Record of Interview is the formal
Page 30 and 31: i. Executive summary The Executive
Page 32 and 33: 2. Updating the human resources fil
Page 34 and 35: Checkpoint 3: IASC Protocol 1. The
Page 36 and 37: Tool 4: What information do you hav
Page 38 and 39: Person Interviewed Name of the pers
Page 40: Person of concern or beneficiary -

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