Gemeinnützige Bauorden GmbH and Internationaler Bauorden – Deutscher Zweig e. V.

(Status: November 2024)

Content

1. Definition
2. Code of Conduct (and declaration of commitment by employees/volunteers) Anchoring in the mission statement of the concept (and reference to this in the protection concept)
3. Risk Factors
4. Prevention
5. Complaint Procedure
6. Intervention plan for Acute Crisis / Suspected Abuse
7. Emergency Numbers
8. External Counselling Centres

Preface

For the Internationaler Bauorden, the unattainable dignity of every human being is a prerequisite for its actions. As an actor in international youth work, we want to contribute to the development and support of young people and young adults. Protection against sexually motivated border violations is therefore of integral importance to the Internationaler Bauorden. The Internationaler Bauorden would like to offer young people and young adults a safe place. The prevention of sexualised violence against children, adolescents, young adults and vulnerable adults from psychological, physical or structural violence of any kind is of the utmost importance in the context of all events and offers of the Internationaler Bauorden.

To ensure effective prevention, the Internationaler Bauorden presents this protection concept and integrates it into all work processes and measures offered. It is available to the Bauorden‘s project partners as well as all participants and the public as a guide and specific instruction manual.

The standards of behaviour formulated here bind full-time and voluntary employees and contribute to the prevention of violence. It was adopted and put into force by the board of the Internationaler Bauorden – Deutscher Zweig e. V. and the management of Gemeinnützige Bauorden GmbH in December 2024. The protection concept will be reviewed after two years at the latest and updated if necessary.

1. Definition

In the context of volunteer work, young international people from different cultures and socialisations meet different people in local projects and from civil society. They are informed by the Internationaler Bauorden about the framework conditions of their assignment, but on site in the local projects they meet people who are largely strangers. As a result, there can be major differences in age, knowledge, authority and power during the assignment. All of these aspects make it possible for sexual boundary violations to occur. Situations involving sexual violence or sexual abuse are also made possible by the setting described.

In the following, basic terms are first defined so that there is clarity about the different levels of sexual misconduct.

Sexual boundary violations are acts that transgress people’s individual boundaries. This behaviour is not usually punishable and is not always intentional. ‘Accidental and unintentional boundary violations (for example an unintentional touch or offence caused by a remark that is perceived as hurtful) can be corrected in everyday interaction if the person violating the boundary treats the other person with a fundamentally respectful attitude.’

Sexual assaults differ from boundary violations in their intensity because they do not happen by chance and are often sexually motivated. Boundary violations are used to test whether a person is passive and therefore a suitable victim. Sometimes sexual assaults are aimed at shaming, exposing or manipulating another person.

‘Certainly not all assaultive acts are planned in detail, but assaultive behaviour/patterns of behaviour only develop when adults or young people disregard social/cultural norms, institutional rules, the resistance of victims and/or professional standards. Assaults are distinguished from unintentional boundary violations by:

• – Disregarding the verbal or non-verbal (defensive) reactions of the victims, Massivität und/ oder Häufigkeit der Grenzverletzungen
  und/ oder
• – Disregarding the criticism of third parties of the behaviour that violates boundaries
• – Insufficient personal responsibility or failure to take responsibility for one’s own transgressive behaviour, devaluing victims and/or witnesses who ask third parties for help (devaluing them as “snitches” or “rabble-rousers”)[1]

There are sexual assaults with and without physical contact and physical assaults in which the victim is injured and/or frightened by being held down or playfully romped about.

Sexualised violence or sexual abuse refers to sexual acts that are prohibited by law. These usually follow previous sexual assaults or repeated sexual boundary violations.

Sexualised violence is ‘any sexual act that is carried out on or in front of girls and boys against their will or to which they cannot knowingly consent due to their physical, mental, intellectual or linguistic inferiority. The perpetrator uses his or her position of power and authority to satisfy his or her own needs at the expense of the child’.

In the context of international youth work and in the work camp format, which is particularly relevant for the Internationaler Bauorden, not only children and young people but also (young) adults can be regarded as potential victims of sexualised violence or its precursors. If there is a major difference between victim and perpetrator in at least one characteristic (e.g. position of power, role in the group, culture, religion, socialisation, age, education, knowledge of foreign languages), sexualised violence is structurally facilitated.

2. Code of Conduct

Every person who works for the Internationaler Bauorden on a voluntary, honorary or full-time basis or who implements measures with the Internationaler Bauorden as a cooperation/project partner is informed of the Code of Conduct that applies to them, which is formulated in the form of a voluntary commitment.  By signing, the person undertakes to observe this Code of Conduct during their engagement with the Internationaler Bauorden. Non-compliance with the Code of Conduct has consequences that can extend to exclusion from a programme.

3. Anchoring in the Guiding Principles

Understanding and reconciliation have played an important role for the Internationaler Bauorden since its foundation. The voluntary work and life together of predominantly young adults is intended to contribute to tolerant coexistence. Fair and respectful interaction between all participants is an integral part of the work camp format. This also includes fully recognising the sexual self-determination and individual boundaries of all participants.

4. Risk Factors

a. Target Group

Every year, around 200 volunteers complete a short international voluntary service programme with the Internationaler Bauorden, focusing on construction support. This placement usually takes place as part of a two-week work camp. The intercultural exchange is a speciality. During the project period, the international volunteers live and work together and thus have a high contact density.

Volunteers are generally of legal age and are not initially adults in need of protection and assistance, but can still be considered a vulnerable target group. Sexuality (continues to) develop in underage and young adult volunteers and boundaries are discovered, tested and changed. This can lead to situations that encourage sexual boundary violations or sexually abusive behaviour towards volunteers. They are both vulnerable and potential perpetrators.

b. Cultural and Religious Differences

Diversity and openness are part of the identity of the International Order of Building. For this reason, generalised cultural attributions should be avoided. Nevertheless, in intercultural contexts there are different perceptions of closeness and distance. Gender roles and the treatment of sexuality are also sometimes culturally characterised and this can lead to false expectations and/or misunderstandings in intercultural contexts. There can be different perceptions of where boundaries lie, when actions are considered violent, but when it is permissible to defend oneself against them and talk about them. This also applies to religious contexts or implicit or explicit rules of behaviour that have a religious origin. 

c. Cooperation with the Project Partners

The Internationaler Bauorden works with carefully selected project partners in Germany and abroad. We have enjoyed a trusting working relationship with many of them for many years.

Nevertheless, it should be noted that the Internationaler Bauorden can only exert limited influence on the work in the projects on site – it is not possible to monitor the processes and structures, particularly in the case of work camps abroad.

d. Accommodation during the Workcamp

The volunteers stay overnight in shared accommodation during the work camp. The volunteers are informed in advance whether it is possible to sleep in separate gendered accommodation. At night, abusive behaviour is conceivable in this setting and sexual violence or abuse can happen more easily. The privacy of the volunteers is respected and, in justified exceptional cases, the request for a single sleeping facility can be granted in consultation with the project partner or organised by the individual volunteer in advance.

e. Interpretation, Communication and Attitude

The extent to which authority and power are perceived in the context of work instructions or in everyday life between volunteers is subject to the personal experiences and socialisation of the individual volunteer. Everyone interprets situations and events differently and has the right to have their experiences recognised and respected. Whether cultural or religious misunderstandings are, in the worst case, consciously or unconsciously exploited by people with a higher level of experience and lead to abuse of power is something that the full-time employees of the Internationaler Bauorden’s head office are unable to recognise. We appeal to both our project partners and volunteers to treat each other with sensitivity.

Employees of the Internationaler Bauorden office endeavour to visit every work camp in Germany in person. However, a project visit is always just a snapshot of a two-week exchange. Depending on the situation and the level of communication, it is possible that the employees may only learn of any grievances later. It is important for them to establish respectful, honest and as open as possible communication with all persons involved in the work camp and to adopt a corresponding attitude themselves.

5. Prevention

a. Information and Comunication Structure

This protection concept is published on the website of the Internationaler Bauorden (www.bauorden.de). The following communication structure applies to the supervision of volunteers – as for all volunteer concerns:

Volunteers work in the project. On site, there is a contact person appointed in advance by the project partner for all day-to-day, work-related and location-specific questions.

The employees of the Internationaler Bauorden office are in contact with the volunteers and the project organiser before and after the end of the project. If possible, a full-time staff member visits the project on one day for an interim evaluation during the first week of the project and talks to the volunteers and the project partner.

Throughout the project, the staff at the International Building Order’s office are available by phone and email to answer any questions (both for volunteers and for the project partner). The availability also applies beyond the usual business hours of the office. In an emergency, a further visit can take place on site.

b. Voluntary Commitment

Volunteers and project partners sign a declaration of commitment to treating other people with respect and appreciation and to standing up for human rights. In it, they confirm that they are aware of the contexts in which sexualised violence can occur and that they will take action against it and inform the full-time staff at the Internationaler Bauorden office if they notice anything.

The full-time employees at the International Building Council’s office are also committed to dealing with issues of sexualised violence in a professional and sensitive manner. 

6. Complaint Procedure

If a person contacts the staff at the International Building Order’s office in writing or verbally with a concern or suspicion of sexual misconduct during a work camp, the so-called complaints procedure applies. At least two employees at the International Building Order’s office are always involved in the complaints procedure. The complaint, all suspicions and indications of inadequate behaviour in the context of a work camp are documented, taken seriously and clarified as far as possible. The following steps are usually taken for this purpose:

1. Accept and document the complaint/observation/assumption.

2. Compare and document the person’s statements with other people who were on site.

3a. If the facts described in (1) are supported by other statements or the suspicion cannot be clearly dispelled, the intervention plan for an acute crisis will apply. If the person in (1) was themselves affected by the sexual misconduct, the intervention plan will come into effect under all circumstances.

3b. If it turns out that a different situation is factually verifiable and the person under (1) did not know relevant facts and therefore drew false conclusions or misunderstandings or other misjudgements occurred, this will be clarified and documented in a discussion with the person. All other persons involved will be referred to the self-declaration by employees in the International Building Code office and attention will be paid to reflection to an appropriate extent (especially with a focus on improved communication or more sensitive behaviour in the future).

The aim of a complaints procedure is always to clarify the unsatisfactory facts of the case and, in the event of a conflict, to agree on a solution that makes sense for the future and the subsequent more effective application of the self-declaration.

7. Intervention Plan for Acute Crisis

An intervention plan is described in detail below, which will be followed step by step in the event of a crisis. The employees at the Internationaler Bauorden’s office will use this intervention plan as a guideline for their actions and will adhere to it in terms of content and chronology, insofar as this is possible in the situation that arises. 

1. Accept and document the description of the incident, if not already done. It is important to know that there are three different forms:

a) the case of notification (the person concerned contacts the Bauorden themselves), please note the information under point 3;

b) Suspicion of misbehaviour or perpetration (the person has an unpleasant feeling, a suspicion towards other persons in the work camp context, especially volunteers or persons of the project partner);

c) worrying perceptions (the person is worried because of statements or behaviour of a third person in the workcamp context, especially regarding volunteers or young people/children who are at the project site during the day)

2. Contact another person working in the international office and always proceed in a coordinated manner. It is determined who will take on the fixed responsibility for the next necessary intervention steps. If necessary, the second person will support or remind the person responsible. Care should be taken to proceed quickly and to reach point 6 as quickly as possible.

3. Contact the person concerned and arrange a meeting (in person or by telephone) if this has not already been done. Proceed sensitively and react to the person’s statements/behaviour in a non-judgemental but very empathetic manner. Depending on the condition and extent of the incident, consider together with the person how intensive the further contact/exchange should be, whether they need other support or a change of location is necessary. It is important to signal that the International Building Council will endeavour to clarify/reflect on the incident appropriately and with consideration for their privacy and wishes.

4.  Ideally, an external counselling centre for sexual abuse should be involved and the employees of the International Building Order should seek professional support as soon as sexual assault or abuse can no longer be ruled out with certainty. No personal data of the person will be passed on.

5. If children and young people are affected, the responsible youth welfare office will also be involved.

6. After detailed discussions, the employees in the International Building Order’s office make agreements on how to proceed and continue and implement this until the case is closed.

7. The entire process is documented and archived by the person who was most closely involved in the case. They record which steps were taken and when, and what solution was found with all persons involved. It may also be necessary to adapt the preventive measures, which should be raised as a concern by the documenting person in the Bauorden team.

8. Emergency Numbers

The staff at the Internationaler Bauorden’s office in Ludwigshafen can usually be reached by telephone from Tuesday to Thursday (09:00 to 16:00). Telephone contact is also possible outside these times in urgent cases:

+49 621 6355 4946 (landline, also outside office hours)

+49 152 02091951 (Business mobile phone 1)

+49 159 06664451 (Business mobile phone 2)

In addition, e-mail contact (info@bauorden.de) is possible at any time.

9. External Counselling Centres

Child Protection Hotline

→ Counselling Hotline for Child Protection Issues

Tel.:  0 800 19 210 00 (around the clock)

Web: https://kinderschutzhotline.de/ 

Telefon Counselling Service

Tel.: 0800 1110111 (around the clock)

Web: www.telefonseelsorge.de

Sexual Abuse Hotline

→ Search for Local Advice Centres

Tel.: 0800 22 55 530 (Mo, Wed, Fr: 9-14h; Tue, Thu: 15-20h)

Web: www.hilfe-portal-missbrauch.de/hilfe-telefon

Violence Against Women Hotline

Tel.: 08000 116016 (advises callers of all genders around the clock)

Web: www.hilfetelefon.de

Violence Against Men Hotline

Tel.: 08000 123 99 00 (Mo-Thu: 9-14h+ 16-20h, Fr: 09-15h)

Nationwide Telephone to Prevent Assaults

→ anonymous therapeutic telephone support for people who are afraid of committing a Criminal Offence

Tel.: 08000 70 222 40 (Mo-Fr: 09-18h)

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[1]  https://zartbitter.de/gegen_sexuellen_missbrauch/Fachinformationen/6005_missbrauch_in_der_schule [Abruf am 13.06.2024].