Re: Code of Conduct at events [and 1 more messages]

On Wed, Nov 10, 2010 at 05:10:58PM +0000, Ian Jackson wrote:
>...
> A written policy does a number of things:
>...
> * It gives the conference organisers clear guidelines for how they
> should act. This is helpful both because conference organisers
> have a lot on their minds and don't want to be making difficult
> decisions in a vacuum, but also because it can otherwise be
> difficult for organisers to justify sufficiently strong action. A
> written policy makes it much easier to take action, and is of
> course fairer because no-one can say they weren't told.
>...

Woman accuses man of sexual assault or rape.
Man denies it or says it was consensual.
No witnesses.

You cannot set any clear guidelines for figuring out in this case which
person is the offender and which person is the victim.

And any "strong action" has a high probability of punishing the victim
even further - there's nothing "fairer" about that.

> Ian.

cu
Adrian

--

"Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out
of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days.
"Only a promise," Lao Er said.
Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed