Appeal Procedures
The EAA urges member and non-member archaeologists to report any discrimination, harassment, assault, bullying and intimidation to which they may have been subjected at an EAA Annual Meeting (see Safe Space Policy for the current AM) or in any other EAA-related context, or which they witnessed or are aware of, to the EAA Statutory Appeal and Anti-Harassment Committee as well as to their home institution or organisation and relevant independent bodies.
Appeal and Anti-Harassment Committee Statement
In the aftermath of the Belgrade EAA meeting the AAHC was inundated with complaints from members, many of which involved several individuals and all of which were complex and required sensitive handling. Ordinarily the AAHC meets 3-4 times a year; we have met four times already since September, including the Special Meeting called for January 9, 2026 and expect to meet at least twice before the end of February. Coordinating the schedules of seven busy people, including the representative of the EAA Secretariat, has been challenging and we ask our fellow members to be patient as we work through the case backlog. Our decisions and the actions resulting from those decisions may not always be publicly visible but that does not mean that we are not busy in the background.
A number of complaints were largely focused on procedural issues related to the handling of the directives issued to session organisers and volunteers at the Belgrade meeting. We ask members to remember that we do not set policy or make decisions about legal issues—our primary function is to protect members from harassment, assault, bullying and intimidation (HABI). However, the confusion caused by the conflicting guidelines sent to presenters, organisers and volunteers created an environment that many members experienced as hostile or threatening. As a result, the AAHC compiled the procedural complaints into a report to the Executive Board with recommendations for establishing procedures to avoid such a situation in the future.
We would like to draw members’ attention to several important points regarding the scope of the AAHC’s remit to manage expectations so some of the procedural complaints can be directed elsewhere and individual complaints can be made in a way that allows us to deal with them more expeditiously.
1) Anonymous and third-party complaints without supporting evidence of HABI directed by one EAA member against another will not be considered.
2) Corroborating evidence is necessary because the person against whom the complaint is directed will not have the opportunity to confront their accuser. The procedure for appealing a decision by the AAHC is clearly spelled out in the online guidelines.
3) We are not a tribunal – our main function is to protect vulnerable members, not punish transgressors. That said, if necessary, we will move to impose the maximum penalty against individuals who refuse to accept the decision of the committee with regard to a complaint brought against them.
4) The AAHC does not support any particular political agenda; the opinions of individual members on current issues are not relevant when determining whether a member has been subjected to HABI.
5) We have made an effort to ensure that our deliberations and decisions are entirely independent of any other EAA governing body or committee. That has allowed us to focus on ensuring that every member, irrespective of their rank or professional life stage, has an equal expectation of being treated fairly. At the same time, members who abuse their position and engage in threatening or intimidating behaviour because they assume their status will protect them will receive no special consideration. We take this responsibility seriously and hope that our fellow EAA members will respect the difficult job that we have been asked to do.