Sexual Harassment of Women at the Work Place

Sexual harassment , an insidious form of violence against women, is common to all cultures. The stories are strikingly similar from country to country; only the names and the places change . Sexual harassment can take a variety of forms . It includes both physical violence and subtle forms of non-physical violence such as emotional and psychological harm or suffering to women, including economic and professional injuries, Like other forms of violence, sexual harassment to the work place is a demonstration of power and control and above all it exemplifies a form of gender discrimination or gender inequality,

 Examples of sexual harassment from around the world have shown that the elimination of this problem is a difficult task , women often fear retribution if they report inappropriate conduct, hence they rarely report instances of sexual harassment, The victims are ashamed or embarrassed about their experiences and they feel that their claims will not be taken seriously , Even if a women does report sexual harassment, it is often difficult to prove the occurrence of sexual harassment due to lack of circumstantial evidence and witnesses unwilling to testify in support of the victim, This is because either the conduct occurs when the two parties are alone or other employees are afraid of jeopardizing their  own jobs . Employers too, often fail to treat the problem of sexual harassment  seriously or appropriately Often organizations do not take measures for prevention of sexual harassment at their premises until ti becomes unbearable for some  of their female employees or another crisis arises .

 This booklet provides a general understanding of the problem of sexual harassment of women at the work place, the exiting international safeguards, the legal approaches adopted by different countries , the Indian approach to the problem and the initiatives taken by the National Human Rights Commission ( NHRC)

Protection Against Sexual Harassment in International Law

In countries that provide legal protection against sexual harassment two types of conduct in work place have generally been prohibited

1. Quid pro quo sexual harassment , and






2. Harassment that creates a hostile work environment ,

1. Quid pro quo Sexual Harassment

Quid pro quo is  a  Latin phrase meaning something for something quid pro quo sexual harassment refers to a demand of sexual favors and the threat  of  adverse job consequences if the demand is refused .  

    To establish a prima facie case of quid pro quo sexual harassment, a plaintiff must show that :

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   1. the employee belongs to a protected class;
   
   
   
   
   
   
   2.  the employer subjected the employee to unwelcome conduct in the form of sexual advances or requests for sexual favours;
   
   
   
   
   
   
   3. the harassment was bases upon sex; and
   
   
   
   
   
   
   4. the employee’s acceptance or rejection of the harassment was an express or imides condition to the receipt of a job benefit or the cause of a tangible job detriment,
   
   
   
   

                               If a plaintiff in a sexual harassment case is able to establish each of the above elements, then the burden to prove otherwise shifts to the employer employee must then establish that the reasons provided by the employer are not the real reasons for the employment decision and are merely a pretext for unlawful discrimination,

1. hostile work Environment Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment also accurse when an individual experiences physical conduct of a sexual nature where such conduct has the purpose of effect of unreasonably interfering with that individual’s   work performance or creating an intimidating , hostile , or offensive working environment. To establish a prima fancies case of sexual harassment based on hostile work environment , a plaintiff must show that :                             

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   1. the plaintiff belongs to a protected class;
   
   
   
   
   
   
   2. the plaintiff was subjected to unwelcome sexual harassment ;
   
   
   
   
   
   
   3. the harassment was bases on sex:
   
   
   
   
   
   
   4.  the harassment affected  a term , condition , or privilege of  employment; and
   
   
   
   
   
   
   5. the employer knew or should have known the conduct was occurring .
   
   
   
   

                                 The United Nations and other international organizations have all recognized that women’s rights are human rights, and that violence against women is violation of the human rights of women. These organizations have specifically condemned sexual harassment  in a series of international instruments as a prohibited form of violence against women, As sexual harassment violates the rights to just and favorable conditions of work, this fact has been recognized by the United Nations in the Universal Declaration of   Human Rights ( UDHR),  the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)  and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). In addition, a government’s failure to provide an  effective remedy to the victims of sexual harassment violates the rights to an effective remedy for the violation of fundamental human rights guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)  and the UDHR.

As such the United Nations has emphasized the responsibility of member states to create conditions that protect the human rights of individuals and in particular of women in public and private life, and has acknowledged that governments may be made responsible for inaction in the face of human rights abuses by private actors just as they are for abuses committed by state actors . This express condemnation of human rights violations commonly experienced by women relicts a growing recognition international organizations and non-governmental organizations , largely ignored the experiences of women by focusing mainly on violations of civil and political rights,

Notwithstanding the serious limitation in these documents with respect to sexual harassment the strong international condemnation of sexual harassment may provide the necessary legitimacy to people at large working to adopt national legislations to prohibit sexual harassment in countries that have not yet addressed the problem.

                 The following paragraphs look into a few of the prominent United Nations Conventions, which address the issue of sexual harassment.