L’Oréal Paris announces Stand Up training programme against public harassment

L’Oréal Paris announces the launch of Stand Up, its International bystander intervention training programme against street harassment. From colleges to public transport to markets to online spaces, Stand Up will grow a community of 1 million upstanders, trained in the 5D’s: Direct, Delegate, Document, Distract, Delay, the expert-approved bystander intervention training programme pioneered by NGO Hollaback!

Bystander intervention is the term for witness action to defuse situations and make public spaces safer. To take the training into the heart of local communities in India, L’Oréal Paris has partnered with NGO Breakthrough to deliver on-ground trainings. With Stand Up, L’Oréal Paris aims to impart 1 million trainings in India, conducted online and on-ground by 2022.

Stand Up will create a community of upstanders, on ground with Breakthrough, through a dedicated training website: www.Standup-India.com and across social media. This community will be trained in the 5D’s: Direct, Distract, Delegate, Document, Delay, beginning with Distraction, the simple act of interrupting an incident by asking the time or pretending to be lost.

By opening the public eye to the scale of harassment women in particular, experience, Stand Up aims to simultaneously discourage harassers, support victims and encourage bystanders to intervene in a safe manner.

“Breakthrough has been working for over 20 years to make violence and discrimination against women unacceptable. We are very proud to partner with L’Oréal Paris in empowering young people to take action, for themselves, and for others, now and in the future. Bystanders are often not equipped to tackle street harassment and feel helpless during such situations. Based on the expert-approved 5D’s methodology, Stand Up makes a clarion call to citizens to take action against street harassment, by encouraging them to undertake a simple and effective training program, that not only supports victims, but also enables bystanders to safely intervene. Stand Up will enable women to reclaim public spaces,” says Sohini Bhattacharya, President and CEO, Breakthrough India

Standing up for everyone’s self-worth

Living by its revolutionary ‘Worth it’ tagline, L’Oréal Paris has multiplied brand initiatives to break down the barriers that prevent women from fully believing in and realizing their self-worth. Leveraging its global reach, today the Stand Up movement takes the brand’s support for women into the public space by tackling the intimidating behaviours that impact girls’ and women’s very sense of freedom to move through the world.

“L’Oréal Paris stands for empowerment in every walk of a woman’s life. By removing obstacles that prevent women from fulfilling their ambitions, we are committed to elevating their sense of self-worth. Sexual harassment in public spaces is the #1 issue faced by women and girls around the world, which significantly impacts their self-confidence. With our NGO partner Breakthrough, we invite women and men to Stand Up and safely respond when they witness or experience street harassment. Together we can create a world for girls and women to march confidently forward into a world free from street harassment,” says Pau Gruart, General Manager, L’Oréal Paris, India

“How many of us look the other way because we simply don’t know how to help? We’re partnering with L’Oréal Paris to train people around the world, men, women, of all origins and all generations in the 5 D’s, the simple tools they need in their everyday lives to first recognize and then to intervene. This partnership has the power to really transform this issue. Together, we can end harassment to make the public space safe for girls and women,” says Emily May, co-founder and executive director of Hollaback!

Global Study

An international survey on sexual harassment in public spaces, conducted in partnership with Ipsos, researchers at Cornell University and L’Oréal Paris, reveals that 78% of women have experienced sexual harassment in public spaces, only 25% of victims say someone helped them, 79% said it improved the situation when a witness intervened. This survey was carried in 8 countries across the world: India, Canada, France, Italy, Mexico, Spain, UK, USA.

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