SENSITIVITY

TOPICS UNDER SENSITIVITY

I. Conflict Sensitivity
II. Prejudice
III. Stereotyping
IV. Discrimination
V. Media Literacy
 What is Sensitivity?
In peace training, sensitivity means ensuring
that participants develop awareness and learn
how to cooperate with local stakeholders so
they can intervene appropriately.
PREJUDICE
WHAT IS PREJUDICE?
Prejudice is a negative feeling or attitude
towards a person or a group even if it lacks
basis. Hence, building tolerance and respect
for diversity becomes an imperative in a
world where intolerance for differences has
become a justification for violence.
TYPES OF PREJUDICE
RACISM

The belief that one’s own cultural or racial

heritage is innately superior to that of others,
hence, the lack of respect or appreciation for
those who belong to a “different race”.
SEXISM
A system of attitudes, actions, and structures
that subordinates others on the basis of their
sex where usual victims are women.
HETEROSEXISM
Negative attitudes toward lesbians and gay
men.
CLASSISM
Distancing from and perceiving the poor as
“the other”.
LINGUICISM
Negative attitudes which members of
dominant language groups.
AGEISM
Negative attitudes held against the young
or the elderly.
LOOKISM
Prejudice against those who do not
measure up to set standards of beauty. The
usual victims are the over weight, the
undersized, and the dark skinned.
Religious Intolerance
Prejudice against those who are followers
of religious other than one’s own.
STEREOTYPING
WHAT ARE STEREOTYPES?
Stereotypes are preconceived ideas and
simplistic images that have a positive or
negative influence on the way we see
people, interact with them and treat them.
WHAT ARE STEREOTYPES?
In other words, stereotypes impose
limitations on the people they target, assign
them roles that are not necessarily suited to
them and make it harder for them to be their
true selves.
WHAT ARE STEREOTYPES?
 Groups are often stereotyped on basis of sex,
gender identity, race and ethnicity, nationality,
age, socioeconomic status, language, and so
forth.

 Sexual stereotyping involves associating girls

and boys with separate and, at times, opposing
sets of characteristics.
EFFECTS OF STEREOTYPES
 ATTRIBUTIONAL AMBIGUITY
The uncertainty of stereotyped individuals to
interpret the cause of others’ behavior
toward them (positive or negative: group or
individual merit).
SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY
The behavior in which one’s inaccurate
expectations about a person’s behavior
prompt stereotype-consistent behaviors.
 SELF-STEREOTYPING
It is a specific stereotypes that affect a
person’s evaluations of their abilities.
 STEREOTYPE THREAT
It is when people are aware of a negative
stereotype about their social group, then
experience anxiety that they might confirm
the stereotype, undermining performance.
AVOIDING STEREOTYPES
1. Find out about actual people and practices—
across classes, regions, educational backgrounds,
etc.

2. Consider both the structural and cultural

mechanisms by which gender divisions and
inequalities are often sustained.

3. Seek to expose “mismatches” between gender

norms, assumptions, or stereotypes and actual
people or practices.
DISCRIMINATION
 What is Discrimination?
Discrimination – in all its
possible forms and
expressions – is one of the
most common forms of
human rights violations and
abuse. It affects millions of
people everyday and it is one
of the most difficult to
recognize.
Intolerance- is a lack of
respect for practices or
beliefs other than one’s
own. It also involves the
rejection of people whom
we perceive as different.
 Intolerance can manifest itself in a wide range of
actions from avoidance through hate speech to
physical injury or even murder.

 Discrimination occurs when people are treated less

favorably than other people are in a comparable
situation only because they belong, or are
perceived to belong to a certain group or category
of people.
Direct and Indirect
Discrimination
Direct Discrimination
It happens when a person is
treated differently because of
the way they are.

 For example, it happens if

someone doesn’t get a job
because of their disability or
isn’t treated equally because
of their race.
Indirect Discrimination
When a person with a protected
characteristic is put at a
disadvantage because of a rule or
practice.

Example: A school requires male

pupils to wear a cap as part of the
uniform. This is applied equally to
all pupils but means that Sikh
boys who are required by their
religion to wear a turban cannot
attend the school.
Individual And Institutional
Discrimination
Individual Discrimination
Individual discrimination is
consists of one-on-one acts
by members of the dominant
group that harm members of
the subordinate group or
their property.
 Institutional Discrimination

Institutional discrimination
consists of the practices of
organizations and institutions
that harm members of
subordinate groups.
Structural Discrimination
Structural Discrimination
It is a term used when the discrimination
against individual groups is caused by the
way that a society is organized.
For example, a patriarchal society will have
patriarchal gender structures that lead to
discrimination against women.
 Itis based on the very way in which our
society is organized. The system itself
disadvantages certain groups of people.

 It works through norms, routines,

patterns of attitudes and behavior that
create obstacles in achieving real equality
or equal opportunities.
 It is often manifests itself as institutional bias,
mechanisms that consistently err in favor of one
group and discriminate against another or others.

 These are cases when the resulting discrimination is

clearly not rooted in an individual's conviction
regarding a person or a group of people, but in
institutional structures, be they legal,
organizational, and so on.
 The challenge of structural discrimination is to
make it visible.

 The existence of structural discrimination leaves

states with the challenge of adopting policies that
look not only at the legal framework but at other
incentives as well, taking into account patterns of
behavior and how different institutions operate.

 Human rights education may be one of the

responses to this problem.
MEDIA LITERACY
 WHAT IS MEDIA LITERACY?
Media literacy empowers people to think
critically about information and use of
digital tools.
MEDIA LITERACY SKILLS
Media literacy skills are
defined as the abilities to
access, analyze, evaluate,
create, and act using all
forms of communication
(National Association for
Media Literacy Education,
2010).
In contexts of conflict, the media can be used
to promote and rebuild peace through:

 Informational media

 Entertainment

media (edutainment)

 Participatory media
FIVE LAWS OF MEDIA AND
INFORMATION LITERACY
BY UNESCO
Media and information literacy for all
should be seen as a nexus of human rights.

 Law #1- Information, communication,

libraries, media, technology, the Internet
as well as other forms of information
providers are for use in critical civic
engagement.
Media and information literacy for all
should be seen as a nexus of human rights.

 Law #2- Every citizen is a creator of

information/knowledge and has a
message. They must be empowered to
access new information/knowledge and to
express themselves.
Media and information literacy for all
should be seen as a nexus of human rights.

 Law #3- Information, knowledge, and

messages are not always value neutral, or
always independent of biases.
Media and information literacy for all
should be seen as a nexus of human rights.

 Law #4- Every citizen wants to know and

understand new information, knowledge
and messages as well as to communicate.
Media and information literacy for all
should be seen as a nexus of human rights.
 Law #5- Media and information literacy is not
acquired at once.It is a lived and dynamic
experience and process. It is complete when it
includes knowledge, skills, and attitudes, when
it covers access, evaluation/assessment, use,
production and communication of information,
media and technology content.
THANK YOU !