Confronting sexual harassment at the workplace: The silent epidemic of GBV

Three years after completing her bachelor’s degree, Marie-Claire Umurerwa struggled to find a job. Every place she applied, she got close but never got the job. It was a difficult period for her, staying at her aunt's house for all those years. Once in a while she would get temporary gigs like service jobs at conferences and events, to make ends meet. At one conference in 2023, she met a man who said he owned an IT company and offered to give her a job. They exchanged contacts. Few days later, Umurerwa got in touch with the man, who invited her to his office and they discussed the kind of job he would give her, the benefits as well as the terms of work. It was a huge relief for her. Finally, she was employed. From the onset, it all seemed well. Umurerwa was working as an office administrator, handling most of the office work and taking on tasks from her boss. She would work until late to align the day's business with the man in question. One month into the job, Umurerwa’s employer –who is married, began making sexual advances, which made her uncomfortable, but did not know how to handle it because she was scared of losing her job. “I was stuck with the whole situation, but I made it clear that I was not interested in a relationship with him. The more I insisted that we keep our relationship professional, the more hostile and mean he became,” narrates Umurerwa. One evening, he called her to his office and informed her that after three months of probation, her position had been changed. She was given a marketing and sales role, which would require her to spend the day on the field – looking for clients, and according to the new terms, she would be paid by commission, based on the revenue she brought in. “I knew it was all aimed at frustrating me, and pushing me out of the job because I turned down his advances. My position was given to another young lady,” recalls the 25-year-old, who had no way to seek redress. As 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence (GBV), aimed at raising awareness and taking action to end all forms of violence against women and girls, sexual harassment and exploitation in the workplace remains one of the most intricate forms of GBV. While most times GBV campaigns dwell on violence against women at home and society in general – there is little focus on the workplace –which experts, in fact, say women and girls can be more prone to GBV – given many factors at play. Marie-Immaculée Ingabire, Chairperson of Transparency International Rwanda, which receives cases of victims, says that the issue of sexual harassment and exploitation in the workplace is more complicated than many people think. The organisation she heads publishes the “Gender-Based Corruption (GBC) Report”, annually, the most recent one, released last year, showing that gender-based corruption was indeed prevalent in public and private institutions, as well as CSOs and NGOs. The findings highlighted the prevalence of GBC in the workplace in Rwanda as a sizable proportion of respondents confirmed that gender-based corruption occurs in their workplace. ALSO READ: Sexual harassment: How will labour ministry fight the vice in the workplace The study found that women and girls are more likely to be victims of gender-based corruption in the workplace than men. With regard to awareness, the majority of respondents – more than 80 per cent, indicated that they are aware of the different GBC behaviours, but they have been normalised. More than 90 per cent of the respondents believed that various forms of gender-based corruption are inappropriate and unacceptable but little is done to address them due to fear of retaliation or feeling that it would not change anything. “This is because most times the victims are not willing to report, so that they don’t lose their jobs. For me, this is an issue that goes beyond 16 days of activism because it is an ever present and evolving issue,” Ingabire says. “These young girls and boys are afraid of their own future and they actually accept to be willing participants to keep their jobs. It is a horrible practice and we consider it a high level of corruption. Serious measures need to be taken against the perpetrators,” Ingabire explains. A growing trend involving foreigners Ingabire says that some of the most recent cases the anti-corruption watchdog received implicate some foreigners, who come as investors or business owners, employ desperate young girls and boys who are looking for jobs and they take advantage of them. “It is a serious challenge we are seeing, foreign employers, especially in sectors like hospitality and business, taking advantage of their young employees. I really say this because I have evidence and witnesses,” “Some foreigners bring their bad practices, forcing them on their young employees and those who turn them down lose their jobs immediately,” Ingabire says, adding that Transparency International Rwanda has received many such cases of youth reporting sexual harassment and exploitation, especially by their foreign employers. It is something she says needs to be looked into, because most of these cases go unreported and the perpetrators have normalised them. “What we know is just a small percentage,” she says. Ingabire calls on parents and guardians to equip their children with the knowledge and skills to reject such and at the same time urges victims to report whenever they encounter sexual harassment at work, as one way of ending it. In some cases, they intervene and advocate for the rights of the employees – including having them restored in their work, if they have been unfairly dismissed. “What we do is advocate for the relevant authorities to act, but we also go to the employers and talk to them. Some allow them to return to work and to ensure that their rights are respected,” Ingabire states, adding that in other cases, the sexual harassment persist even after reporting. She says that apart from the victims feeling compromised not to report – in order not to lose their jobs, in other cases victims do not report because they are asked to provide tangible evidence, such as videos or text messages, which they might not have and they end up feeling frustrated. In other cases, influential employers turn things around to accuse their victims of blackmail and defamation. Many respondents interviewed by TIR pointed to reasons such as lack of transparency in recruiting and promoting employees, and other staff benefits, lack of self-confidence, and poverty and difficult living conditions of vulnerable groups as the main causes of GBC. In terms of action, Ingabire argues that some people have been arrested and charged over soliciting sexual favours from their employees or subordinates but it is a small number compared to how serious the problem is. Shunning responsibility When analysed, Ingabire says that majority of the people accused of meting out sexual harassment or soliciting sexual favours from employees are people in positions of responsibility, or have been trusted with leadership. It is an issue Ingabire says needs to be dealt with openly and decisively, because most times it is not talked about – often swept under the rug, which makes it more dangerous and deeply rooted. Most of the cases they receive involve women or girls – but there are reports by young men too, who are abused by older women, fit to be their mothers. The majority of the victims approach Transparency International, seeking advice, counselling and legal redress about the injustices they encountered. Ingabire warns those who still engage in sexual harassment at work should know it is a criminal offence, and the long arm of the law can catch up with them at any given time. “Many are very smart and cunning, they don’t leave behind evidence that can implicate them,” Ingabire says, urging victims to speak up and take quick action by reporting. ALSO READ: Sexual harassment: How can organisations encourage workers to speak out What the law and international conventions say The issue of sexual violence at the work place is a serious issue that in 2019, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) put in place the ILO Convention 190 - a key tool to fight workplace violence and harassment, by setting global standards to prevent violence and harassment, including gender-based violence. It was the first of its kind instrument to set global standards to eliminate violence and harassment in the world of work and is a key element in the global effort against these issues. C190 along with its accompanying recommendations provide countries with a comprehensive framework for implementing policies that address all forms of workplace violence and offer guidelines for workers, employers, and governments to build safe and decent work environments. The Convention calls for the implementation of inclusive, holistic, and gender-sensitive measures to address these issues, taking into account the underlying causes and risk factors such as gender stereotypes, different forms of discrimination, and unequal gender-based power relations. The ILO Convention No. 190 calls on governments and policymakers to establish robust legal frameworks to protect workers from violence and harassment in the workplace, with employers playing a key role in creating a safe and supportive environment. It also urges employers to put in place means through which workers can report incidents of violence or harassment without fear of retaliation, as well as internal policies that focus on zero-tolerance of workplace sexual violence. In Rwanda, the labour code prohibits sexual harassment of women in the workplace. Law Nº68/2018 of 30/08/2018 regulating Labour in Rwanda provides detailed provisions on sexual harassment and punishments. The legislation defines sexual harassment as “repeated remarks or behaviour of sexual overtones towards a person that either undermine, violate his/her dignity because of their degrading or humiliating character which create against him/her an intimidating, hostile or unpleasant situation. The labour code prohibits any kind of physical, psychological, or sexual gestures or actions directed at a person or an assault on their property on the grounds of their sex. It also encourages workers to report actions that deprive them of their rights and negatively affects them, such as sexual harassment, solicitation and exploitation at the workplace, either through internal mechanisms or to institutions such as Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB), Isange One-Stop Centre or the Ombudsman’s Office, among others. Furthermore, the law states that if a worker is dismissed from their worker for rejecting or reporting sexual advances, it is considered unfair dismissal and they can seek redress without fearing repercussions. A worker must not be dismissed for reporting or having testified of violence. Charges and penalties The law states that if sexual harassment is done in an employment relationship, in this case an employer or any other person using their responsibility to practice acts of sexual harassment on a subordinate through instructions, threats or intimidation with intention to achieve sexual pleasure, the perpetrator is liable to imprisonment for a term ranging between one to two years and a fine ranging between Rwf100, 000 to Rwf300, 000. However, more charges can be pressed, based on other laws, such as the law on prevention and punishment of GBV as well as the law that determine offences and penalties, to ensure that victims get justice as they should. Several corporate organisations and institutions have put in place internal policies to combat sexual harassment and sexual exploitation but the vice remains an intricate one to confront, given the clandestine nature of work relations. Advocates like Ingabire say that more efforts are needed to deal with sexual violence in the workplace, going beyond awareness campaigns to hold perpetrators accountable because most victims are young people who are the future of the country. Sexual harassment is also prevalent in the private sector, where employers have even much more power to mete it out with limited scrutiny and regulation, capitalising on the desperate need for employment. “It was also found that employees in the private sector are more likely to be victims of gender-based corruption than those in government institutions, CSOs, and NGOs,” part of the TIR report reads. “The findings also suggest that some institutions have a higher level of gender-based corruption than others. The private sector or private companies have the highest rate of gender-based corruption, followed by higher learning institutions, local government, secondary schools,” it adds. Several sector-based initiatives have been undertaken. For example, in November last year, 33 Rwandan media houses signed the “Rwanda Media Anti Sexual Harassment Policy”, committing to combat sexual harassment in the workplace. The Policy covering the media sector was put in place in collaboration with Fojo Institute after a report by the institute showed that over 50 per cent of female journalists in Rwanda have experienced sexual harassment in the beginning of their careers. The report showed that nearly four out of ten female journalists reported that sexual harassment influenced their decision to leave or made them consider to leave the news media.

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Confronting sexual harassment at the workplace: The silent epidemic of GBV