Research glossary

Gender discrimination is unfair treatment based on someone’s gender or gender expression. It can limit access to education, jobs, healthcare, safety, and justice.

It may show up as unequal pay, workplace harassment, exclusion, or dismissing someone’s voice because of their gender.

Example: An older person may start by messaging a teenager on social media, giving them compliments and making them feel special. Over time, they may ask the teenager to keep the relationship secret, send personal photos, or meet in private. What begins as “friendliness” can slowly turn into pressure, control, and abuse.

“Grooming is when someone builds a relationship, trust and emotional connection with a child or young person so they can manipulate, exploit and abuse them.

Children and young people who are groomed can be sexually abused, exploited or trafficked.

Anybody can be a groomer, no matter their age, gender or race. Grooming can take place over a short or long period of time – from weeks to years. Groomers may also build a relationship with the young person's family or friends to make them seem trustworthy or authoritative.”

Grooming is when someone builds a relationship, trust and emotional connection with a child or young person so they can manipulate, exploit and abuse them.

Children and young people who are groomed can be sexually abused, exploited or trafficked.

Anybody can be a groomer, no matter their age, gender or race. Grooming can take place over a short or long period of time – from weeks to years. Groomers may also build a relationship with the young person's family or friends to make them seem trustworthy or authoritative.

Persistent, ongoing behavior conveying negative attitudes towards an individual or group to make them feel intimidated and humiliated. Harassment is an exercise of power. It includes any action that a person knows, or should know, is not welcome. Harassment includes name-calling, jokes, slurs, graffiti, insults, threats, rudeness and crude gestures, verbal or physical abuse. Human Rights Codes in most provinces prohibit harassment based on race, religion, sex, ethnicity and the other prohibited grounds for discrimination

- Unwanted, unwelcomed and uninvited behavior that demeans, threatens or offends the victim and results in a
hostile environment for the victim (Office of Civil Rights, 1997).

The effects of violence on a victim's physical and psychological health are severe. “In addition to the immediate injuries from the assault, victims display increased risk for chronic pelvic pain, genitourinary problems, gastrointestinal distress, somatiziation disorder, substance abuse, obesity, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Women who are abused also display an increased risk of unplanned or early pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS. Interpersonal forms of trauma can also impact many aspects of a victim’s psychological health leading to negative psychological health outcomes. Victims are at risk for depleted self-esteems, trouble forming relationships, PTSD, depression, panic disorder, chronic stress, insomnia, suicide ideation, and anxiety. Victims also often engage in avoidance behaviors to cope with difficult feelings including substance abuse, eating disorders, or self-harm.

Range of negative attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours directed towards people perceived as LGBTQ2 (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and Two-Spirit people), with resulting systemic effects of prejudice, discrimination, and violence

Negative attitudes, feelings, or irrational aversion to, fear or hatred of gay, lesbian, or bisexual people and communities, or of behaviours stereotyped as ‘homosexual.’ It is used to signify a hostile psychological state leading to discrimination, harassment or violence against gay, lesbian, or people

Acts of violence, usually murder, committed by male family members against female family members, who are
held to have brought dishonor upon the family (Human Rights Watch, 2001). A woman can be targeted by
(individuals within) her family for a variety of reasons, when she allegedly steps outside of her socially prescribed
role, including refusal to enter into an arranged marriage, being the victim of a sexual assault, seeking a divorce
— even from an abusive husband — or (allegedly) committing adultery. The mere perception that a woman has
behaved in a way that "dishonors" her family is sufficient to trigger an attack on her life (Committee on the
Status of Women, 2004). However, the term “crimes committed in the name of honor” is currently being used
to refer to these acts of violence

Housing insecurity refers to a spectrum of housing-related challenges that individuals and families may experience, ranging from unstable or unsafe living conditions to homelessness. According to the Urban Institute, “Housing insecurity can take a number of forms: homelessness; housing cost burden; residential instability; evictions and other forced moves; living with family or friends to share housing costs (doubling- up); overcrowding; living in substandard, poor quality housing; or living in neighborhoods that are unsafe and lack access to transportation, jobs, quality schools, and other critical amenities.

Housing insecurity disproportionately affects marginalized communities, including racialized individuals, Indigenous peoples, low-income households, and survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) . For GBV survivors, housing insecurity can increase vulnerability, hinder the ability to leave abusive situations, and create additional barriers to safety and stability

Human trafficking involves exploiting people through force, fraud, or coercion. This may include sexual exploitation, forced labour, domestic servitude, or exploitation in criminal activities.

Human rights affirm and protect the right of every individual to live and work without discrimination and harassment. Human Rights policies and legislation attempt to create a climate in which the dignity, worth and rights of all people are respected, regardless of age, ancestry, citizenship, colour, creed (faith), disability, ethnic origin, family status, gender, marital status, place of origin, race, sexual orientation or socio-economic status.

Universal human rights are often expressed and guaranteed by law, in the forms of treaties, customary international law, general principles and other sources of international law. International human rights law lays down obligations of Governments to act in certain ways or to refrain from certain acts, in order to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms of individuals or groups.

Rights inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status. Human rights include civil, political, social and economic rights. For instance, these include the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education, and many more. Everyone is entitled to these rights, without discrimination.

Human trafficking, also referred to as trafficking in persons, involves recruiting, transporting, transferring, receiving, holding, concealing, harbouring, or exercising control, direction or influence over a person, for the purpose of exploitation, generally for sexual exploitation or forced labour

Human trafficking is internationally recognized as a human rights violation.

Since establishing the “Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children” in 2000 (sometimes known as the “Palermo Protocol”), the United Nations has defined human trafficking according to three distinct elements:

The Act: Recruiting, transporting, sheltering, or receiving people…
The Means: …through the use (or threat) of force, coercion, fraud, or deception…
The Purpose: …for sexual exploitation, forced labour, or organ removal.
The Canadian Criminal Code [2] also outlaws human trafficking, which it defines as follows:

279.01(1) Every person who recruits, transports, transfers, receives, holds, conceals or harbours a person, or exercises control, direction or influence over the movements of a person, for the purpose of exploiting them or facilitating their exploitation is guilty of an indictable offence.

Hypersexualization of girls can refer to girls being depicted or treated as sexual objects. It also means sexuality that is inappropriately imposed on girls through media, marketing or products directed at them that encourages them to act in adult sexual ways.

Any abuse of a position of vulnerability, differential power or trust for
sexual purposes; this includes profiting momentarily, socially or politically
from the sexual exploitation of another. Sexual exploitation is one of the
purposes of trafficking in persons (performing in a sexual manner, forced
undressing and/or nakedness, coerced marriage, forced childbearing,
engagement in pornography or prostitution, sexual extortion for the
granting of goods, services, assistance benefits, sexual slavery).

Using technology to assume the identity of someone else in order to access private information, embarrass or shame them, contact them, or create fraudulent identity documents. This could include sending offensive emails from someone else’s email account or calling someone from an unknown number to avoid the call being blocked.

Incest is sexual activity between close family members, such as a parent and child, siblings, or other blood relatives. In South Africa, incest is illegal, regardless of whether the act appears to be “consensual,” because of the inherent power imbalance and the risk of coercion.

Incest often involves abuse of trust and authority, especially when an older family member uses their position to manipulate, threaten, or silence a younger or more vulnerable relative. It can cause deep and long-lasting trauma, including shame, confusion, fear, and difficulties with trust and relationships later in life.

Sexual relations between close relatives, such as between father and daughter, mother and son, sister and
brother (National Center on Sexual Behavior of Youth, 2003) . It is also called sexual abuse within the family.