The five demands

Commitments people can see, use and test.

THDTH asks institutions and public authorities to make these five commitments visible—and to show the law, procedures, people and resources behind them.

Prevention by design

Identify where power can be abused and reduce the opportunity for harm before it happens.

Publish codes of conduct and professional-boundary rules.
Use safer recruitment, references and role-specific safeguarding training.
Review high-risk spaces, one-to-one access, transport, housing and digital contact.
Assign a trained safeguarding lead with authority and resources.

Consent & power literacy

Teach consent in ways that account for hierarchy, dependency, age and retaliation.

Explain that silence, pressure, fear or a power imbalance can undermine meaningful choice.
Teach staff and students how grooming, quid-pro-quo demands and boundary testing can appear.
Give bystanders practical, lower-risk ways to interrupt, document and refer concerns.
Repeat learning regularly, not only at induction.

Survivor-centred response

Make the first response calm, respectful, confidential and focused on immediate safety.

Offer several accessible reporting routes, including one outside the immediate chain of command.
Explain confidentiality limits before asking for detail.
Avoid blame, pressure, repeated retelling and promises about outcomes.
Connect people to qualified health, psychosocial, legal or protection services when requested.

Accountability without exception

Apply fair process regardless of the accused person’s seniority, influence or institutional value.

Separate fact-finding from conflicts of interest and protect against retaliation.
Set and communicate reasonable timelines, roles and review routes.
Act on substantiated findings and address the conditions that enabled harm.
Publish anonymised data and prevention learning without identifying survivors.

A controlled-access Sex Offenders Register

Establish and maintain a lawfully governed national register, and require serious vetting for every position of trust involving children and young people.

Define qualifying offences and lawful entry criteria. No person should be entered because of rumour, an unverified allegation or a crowdsourced claim.
Give authorised police, courts, child-protection bodies and eligible institutions controlled verification access, limited to what their legal responsibilities require.
Require official criminal-record and register checks before appointment—and periodic rechecking where lawful—for employees, volunteers, contractors and others entrusted with care, instruction, supervision, transport or accommodation.
Provide independent oversight, secure records, audit trails, correction and appeal routes, proportionate retention rules and regular review.
Protect survivor and child identities, and prohibit vigilantism, harassment, republishing and unofficial public naming lists.

A test for institutions

Can a student explain what happens after she reports?

If the answer is no, the policy is not yet a trusted pathway. Institutions should test whether procedures are understood, accessible and safe—not only whether they exist.

Use the action checklist