CHAPTER 31

• Jurisdiction: United States

CHAPTER 31

Sexual Harassment at the United Nations: Changing the Standards and Changing the Practice

Purna Sen¹

In 2017, the United Nations was hit with media stories of sexual harassment within several of its organizations.² The global MeToo movement reached into the United Nations with hashtags that addressed the UN system and the sector, including "#AIDTOO #MeTooUN." The journey from non-story to scandal has promoted a range of initiatives, as it has elsewhere, to show the seriousness with which this abuse is seen and, consequently, the many ways in which it is to be addressed.

Yet sexual harassment was neither new nor unknown; a number of factors made for a moment pregnant with possibilities for significant change. These included: interest among the international media (which was more than fleeting), shared understanding among survivors³ that what had previously been tolerated need not continue to be so, and the reach of the global #MeToo movement into the UN. In addition, governments in various countries included members, mostly women, who had themselves experienced sexual harassment and there was growing public discussion of violence against women in politics (VAWP), including sexual harassment: these dynamics drove efforts to hasten change. These last two factors coincide with, and draw from, a growing sense among women across the world that intolerance and accountability could finally be in sight, that perpetrators might be held accountable and that their (that is, the targets of abuse) assumed sexual availability and acquiescence had an expiry date.

Efforts of the United Nations as an employer are briefly documented here as are those of UN member states, which have built upon prior decisions and standards to bring a focus on sexual harassment. The member states have also organized themselves into a group that seeks to sharpen the focus on sexual harassment and to act as champions of the needed changes.

2018 was an eventful year at the United Nations. The agitation and courage of victims of sexual harassment have been the indisputable engine behind the astonishing demand for change, for reckoning and for a new settlement. Survivors inside the United Nations and within their own countries, are the thread that runs from individual injuries to change at the highest international levels. Together, their efforts illustrate the systemic and structural nature of the discrimination that is sexual harassment.

The United Nations as an Employer

Public knowledge of sexual harassment at the UN goes back decades. The New York Times covered a case at the UN Secretariat in New York in 1994, involving sexual abuse against Catherine Claxton.⁴ In December 1997,⁵ a group of eleven women employed by the UN in Pakistan⁶ brought sexual harassment charges against their manager.⁷ A review of historical, cultural, and contemporary concerns on sexual abuse associated with the UN are captured in a 2018 article⁸ that also links sexual abuse of staff by staff (called sexual harassment, SH) and abuse by staff (or others operating on behalf of the UN) of those outside the UN—named sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA).

Recognition of SEA and efforts to address it have a longer institutional history than do those to end sexual harassment. Procedural distinctions between how protection of staff is to be managed and obligations owed to those being served by the UN have been the foundation of the separation of areas of sexual violence, defined by the (institutional or not) location of the victims. It has led to SEA and sexual harassment being understood as distinct, not as connected expressions of (predominantly) male sexual entitlement to (predominantly) female, less powerful colleagues, or non-colleagues. For many years the UN has used and promoted frameworks that recognize the continuum of violence against women⁹ and that see it as a matter of gender inequality,¹⁰ in a variety of contexts and forms. An understanding of the structural nature of sexual violence, expressed through claims to sexual entitlement, and its fundamentally discriminatory character, is at the core of this approach.

As #MeToo has reached inside the UN, this conceptual basis has been re-kindled and the links between SEA and SH are being re-asserted. Documents, guidelines, and normative developments on SEA define barred and discouraged behaviors, including:¹¹

• Sexual activity with children (persons under the age of eighteen), which is prohibited regardless of the age of majority or age of consent locally. Mistaken belief in the age of a child is not a defense;

• Exchange of money, employment, goods, or services for sex, including sexual favors or other forms of humiliating, degrading, or exploitative behavior, is prohibited. This includes any exchange of assistance that is due to "beneficiaries";

• Sexual relationships between United Nations staff and "beneficiaries" of assistance, since they are based on inherently unequal power dynamics, undermine the credibility and integrity of the work of the United Nations and are strongly discouraged.

Two senior staff appointments were also made in 2017 to lead the work against SEA. Against this backdrop, the UN Secretary General (UNSG) and his chief executive team,¹² established a new, senior internal body¹³ to review and upgrade work against sexual harassment: The Chief Executives Board Task Force on Addressing Sexual Harassment within the Organizations of the UN System. A statement issued in May 2018 outlined the problem thus, with gendered inequality of power at the center:

Sexual harassment results from a culture of discrimination and privilege, based on unequal gender relations and power dynamics. It has no place in the United Nations system.
Leaders of UN System organizations reiterate their firm commitment to uphold a zero-tolerance approach to sexual harassment; to strengthen victim-centered prevention and response efforts; and to foster a safe and inclusive working environment.¹⁴

The Task Force¹⁵ oversaw many initiatives in 2018, including:

• a new model policy for the thirty-one member agencies

• a dedicated staff survey on the topic

• development of helplines

• a tracking database of those against whom allegations of sexual harassment have been upheld¹⁶

• guidance for managers

• improvement of investigation practices and

• a draft code of conduct for behavior at UN events

The model policy on sexual harassment recognizes the range of behaviors that can constitute sexual harassment, and opens a list of examples thus:¹⁷

Sexual harassment can take a variety of forms—from looks and words though to physical contact of a sexual nature. Examples of sexual harassment (non-exhaustive list) include:

• Attempted or actual sexual assault, including rape

• Sharing or displaying sexually inappropriate images or videos in any format;

• Sending sexually suggestive communications in any format

• Sharing sexual or lewd anecdotes or jokes

A model Code of Conduct¹⁸ to prevent harassment, including sexual harassment, at UN system events was drafted both by the Task Force and the Group of friends (see below) in response to allegations and incidents at UN-sponsored, -organized, or -hosted events. Behaviors listed to illustrate harassment and sexual harassment include derogatory comments, repeatedly asking for dates or sex, unwelcome touching, and attempted or actual sexual assault, including rape. Launched in June 2019, the Code is intended to be made available to all who participate in such events and provides for immediate responses, including fact-finding and termination of access by the perpetrator to that event.

There is a tangible overlap and commonality of behaviors recognized in SEA and sexual harassment. Both are steeped in myths and stereotypes that tend to minimize harm, deny credibility of victim voices, and (often implicitly) promote or reflect assumptions of male sexual entitlement—and, as a corollary, women's "obligation" to submit and not to challenge.

Figure 1. How sexual harassment impacted the UN in 2018.

Member States and Normative Developments

Established and increasingly widely recognized as a form of sexual and gender discrimination, sexual harassment falls under the remit of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).¹⁹ Although the treaty text does not make reference to sexual harassment or even violence against women (except for trafficking), interpretive advisory statements²⁰ by the Committee have clarified that violence against women is a form of sexual discrimination. Sexual harassment, as a form of gender-based discrimination, therefore, is a CEDAW concern, prohibited by it and thus States Parties²¹ are duty-bearers that are obligated to end it. The Convention in its very title is concerned with the ending of all discrimination, and this intent was further reinforced in 2015, with a deadline, in Agenda 2030's²² sustainable development goals (SDGs). In particular, Goal 5.2²³ commits to the elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls but others are also pertinent, such as: 8.8²⁴ (promoting safe and secure working environments), 10.3²⁵ (eliminating discriminatory laws, practices, and policies), and 11.7²⁶ (access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces), which has a monitoring indicator that explicitly mentions physical and sexual harassment.

There are several regional standards that are also pertinent to the legal framework on sexual harassment. These include:²⁷

• Latin America—Belem do Para Convention (1994): "'Violence against women' shall be understood as any act or

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