The French-speaking political party DéFI wants to introduce a tougher legal framework around student hazing rituals after the recent ruling over the death of 20-year-old student Sanda Dia.
A staple of Belgian university life, student circles’ hazing rituals are well-known across the country – but are also controversial due to their problematic power dynamics.
Older circle chiefs are known to force the younger newcomers to perform humiliating tasks before being officially accepted into the student circle. The uglier side of their practices has been revealed in the past couple of years with student circles having their own #MeToo movement in 2021.
Various female students from Belgium’s French-speaking universities spoke out to report cases of sexual abuse endured while they were members of a student circle.
However, in most cases, their testimonies were ignored internally amid a normalised culture of silence.
The poster reads: "UCLouvain protects rapists." Credit: Facebook / La Meute LLN
This had been the case in Flanders too, which was shown by the 2018 death of 20-year-old student Sanda Dia.
Having joined KU Leuven’s prestigious student circle Reuzegom, Dia would die of hypothermia and organ failure after being forced to drink fish oil.
Last month, 18 members of the student circle stood trial over Dia’s death and were facing a multiple-year prison sentence. In the end, though, they avoided prison altogether with the court handing them 300 hours of community service and a €400 fine.
The punishment was heavily criticised with many feeling that they had gotten off lightly.
Credit: Belga / Nicolas Maeterlinck
The resulting outcry has also led the francophone centrist party DéFI to look at various legislative proposals which they believe will protect those wanting to join student circles. Spearheaded by the party’s youth leader Jean Kitenge, the party wants to introduce tougher safeguarding measures within student circles.
Firstly, they are calling for a third-party individual to be tasked with applying the university’s code of conduct during student hazing rituals. Secondly, DéFI wants the circle chiefs, who organise the hazings, to be sober during the activities.
With regards to potential sexual violence, the party is calling for an emergency 24/7 number to be introduced which would allow any students to directly report any harrowing experiences they are subjected to.
Finally, DéFI called on authorities to hand out tougher punishments to student circle members found guilty of abusing their power during hazing rituals.
The party is now said to be internally discussing these proposals before presenting them to the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, which is in charge of French-speaking higher education in Belgium.
