Women who reported harassment at the Center for Social Studies want “reparation measures”

In an open letter sent to newsrooms, the complainants write that the Independent Commission’s report, presented last Wednesday, “turned the page on denial of harassment and abuse of power”. It should be remembered that that commission was set up in August last year, with a view to investigating cases of sexual and moral harassment at CES. In April last year, several women publicly accused Boaventura de Sousa Santos and other members of the institution of “inappropriate sexual conduct”. Despite CES’s public apology, the collective represented by the Brazilian lawyer claims that there are “gaps”.

By way of example, the group of ten women – joined in this open letter by activist Moira Millán and researchers Miye Nadya Tom and Lieselotte Viaene – points out that the CES management should issue “a note of recognition” or “request for public apology” to repudiate the defamation proceedings initiated against some of the complainants. Furthermore, the collective says that a “firm commitment to women who face various factors of discrimination” is necessary, including indigenous women.

One of the reparation measures demanded by the complainants is the “short-term” organization of meetings with the CES management, in order to “discuss individual reparation measures”. Although, in the document, there are no details of what type of measures may be involved. Meetings would only be held with women who were available. The University of Coimbra, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education and the judicial authorities are also asked to comment on the results of the Independent Commission.

Other demands written in the open letter, released this Wednesday, include those targeted by the complaints, namely sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos, researcher Bruno Sena Martins and coordinating researcher Maria Paula Meneses. No names were identified in the Independent Commission’s report. However, the collective points out that a “serious process of holding people involved in acts of moral and sexual harassment, abuse of power and intellectual extraction” is necessary.

The complainants ask that disciplinary proceedings be initiated “immediately” against Bruno Sena Martins and Maria Paula Meneses and that both be suspended from their duties. As for Boaventura de Sousa Santos, the group demands that the sociologist’s “self-suspension”, requested by him while the process of investigating the allegations was ongoing, be ended, and that the CES management should remove him from the institution. “The suspension must take into account the protection of doctoral students and researchers subordinate to this professor”, reads the open letter released this Wednesday.