To mark International Anti-Street Harassment Week (3rd- 9th April 2022), L’Oréal Paris and the Suzy Lamplugh Trust announced a partnership to roll out the expert approved Stand Up Against Street Harassment bystander intervention training programme in the UK free of charge, with a goal to train 10,000 people per year through online and in-person workshops.

Bystander intervention is the term for witness action to defuse situations and make public spaces safer. The Stand Up training programme aims to grow a global community of 1.5 million trainees by the end of 2022 and focuses on the “5 D’s” intervention programme originally pioneered by international NGO Right to Be. It encourages those who witness harassment to act by 1) Distracting the perpetrator, 2) Delegating by asking for help, 3) Documenting the harassment, 4) Directing by speaking up and 5) Delaying by providing comfort. Book on the upcoming courses here Stand Up Against Harassment training

 

Research 

In 2021, an IPSOS survey in the UK revealed 86% of us do not know what to do when we witness street harassment happening (1). The partnership with the Suzy Lamplugh Trust means people in the UK can now complete in-depth workshops to create a community of bystanders who are confident in tackling street and public harassment when they witness it.

Research from both L’Oréal Paris and the Suzy Lamplugh Trust has found that 80% of women in the UK have reported experiencing harassment in public spaces (1) and 88% of people in the UK have experienced some form of unwanted behaviour on public transport in the past five years (2) despite reduced footfall during the pandemic, with the most common behaviours being staring, intimidatingly sitting or standing right by someone and verbal abuse.

Although unwanted behaviours affected all demographics in their lifetimes, women were more affected than male respondents (97% and 86% respectively) overall.

Research has also shown that the need to educate on street harassment has never been more apparent: 93% of UK women and 90% of UK men believe there is a lack of training on how to intervene when you witness sexual harassment (3) but 86% of UK witnesses who have intervened reported that their action improved the situation (3).

 

About the Stand Up programme

The programme drives awareness of street harassment with a call-to-action on a global scale. By opening the public eye to the scale of harassment that women in particular experience, Stand Up aims to simultaneously discourage harassers, support victims and encourage bystanders to intervene with the aim to overall drive a cultural shift in the global response to street and public harassment. The training is open to all - action from people of all genders is vital.

Although a long way to go and certainly not the only way to end harassment, given the primary responsibility lies with the harasser not the harassed, bystander training can be a step towards supporting and empowering victims of and witnesses to street harassment.

 

Standing up for everyone’s self-worth

“At L’Oréal Paris we are humbled to partner with a charity as pioneering as the Suzy Lamplugh Trust whose expertise will be invaluable to the Stand Up Against Street Harassment cause. We are eager to work with the Trust on how we can progress the Stand Up platform further and train as many people as possible. Together, we can get the UK to Train Up to Stand Up, to drive cultural change and work towards a future without street harassment.” - Caroline O’Neill, L’Oréal Paris UK General Manager

“Everyone has the right to be safe. But as our survey finds, a shocking number of people - disproportionately women - are experiencing harassment in public spaces. It is unacceptable. Stand Up Against Street Harassment bystander intervention training aims to address the prevalence of public harassment. Working with L’Oreal Paris through Stand Up, we aim to equip people with tools to tackle public harassment. Bystanders can play an important role in supporting victims, helping them feel - and be - safer.”- Suky Bhaker, The Suzy Lamplugh Trust CEO

 

Join the movement against street harassment: standup.lorealparis.com 

Register for the online training here

(1) Third survey: International survey on “sexual harassment in public spaces” conducted by L’Oréal Paris with IPSOS, with data gathered in 15 countries with over 15,000 participants, January 25^th – March 10^th 2021. Interviews were conducted online.

(2) The Suzy Lamplugh Trust ‘Driving Out Violence and Aggression’ report, 582 respondents across 17 days in the UK in September 2021.

(3) First survey: International survey on “sexual harassment in public spaces” conducted by L’Oréal Paris with IPSOS, with data gathered in 8 countries with over 15,000 participants, April 2019. Interviews were conducted online