SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN UNITED NATIONS

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, ratified in 1982 by CSFR) is the most general prohibition of all forms of discrimination. In 1992, The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) adopted on general recommendation 19 “Violence against women”. In Article 24 of this recommendation it is mentioned that states parties should include in their reports to Committee information on sexual harassment in the workplace and should undertake the civil-law and criminal-law measures to overcome sexual violence but also the preventive measures within public information and education.

http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/recommendations/recomm.htm#recom19

C111 Convention concerning Discrimination in Respect of Employment and Occupation was adopted in 1958 by International Labour Organization (ILO) (ratified in 1993 by Slovakia). The Convention defines the term discrimination as any distinction, exclusion or preference made on the basis of race, colour, sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin, which has the effect of nullifying or impairing equality of opportunity or treatment in employment or occupation. Any distinction, exclusion or preference in respect of a particular job based on the inherent requirements thereof shall not be deemed to be discrimination. Sexual harassment can be defined as any unwelcome sexual advance or conduct on the job that creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment and effects the labour-law relations directly or indirectly.

http://www.ilo.org/ilolex/cgi-lex/convde.pl?C111

SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN LEGISLATION OF EUROPEAN UNION

• 92/131/EEC: Commission Recommendation of 27 November 1991 on the protection of the dignity of women and men at work

http://eurlex.europa.eu/smartapi/cgi/sga_doc?smartapi!celexapi!prod!CELEXnumdoc
&lg=en&numdoc=31992H0131&model=guichett

• Code of Commission of European Communities “A code of practice on the implementation of equal pay for work of equal value for women and men” COM (96)

http://www.ec.europa.eu/employment_social/gender_equality/legislation
/com1996-336_en.pdf

• Council Directive 76/207/EEC of 9 February 1976 on the implementation of the principle of equal treatment for men and women as regards access to employment, vocational training and promotion, and working conditions

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do
?uri=CELEX:31976L0207:en:NOT

• Council Directive 2000/43/EC of 29 June 2000 implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin

http://europa.eu/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2000/l_180/l_18020000719en00220026.pdf

• Council Directive 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000 establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation

http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/news/2001/jul/directive78ec_en.pdf

• Directive 2002/73/EC of The European Parliament and of The Council of 23 September 2002 amending Council Directive 76/207/EEC on the implementation of the principle of equal treatment for men and women as regards access to employment, vocational training and promotion, and working conditions

http://www.eiie.org/payequity/EN/docs/EU%20Documents/
2002%2073.pdf#search=%222002%2F73%2FEC%22

In year 2002 the Commission Press service published information that EU thinks about new regulations concerning the sexual harassment in the workplace. Directive 2002/73/ES of The European Parliement and of The Council defined the sexual harassment in the obligatory legislation at the EU level for the first time and determined it as a form of the gender discrimination. Directive includes a compensation or reparation (cannot be restricted by the fixing of a prior upper limit) and sanctions. Employers have to take preventive measures against sexual harassment and compose regular reports on these measures and their implementation.

Definitions:

Direct discrimination: a situation where one person is treated less favourably, on grounds of sex, than another is, has been or would be treated in a comparable situation

Indirect discrimination: a situation where a provision, a criterion or an apparently neutral practice could put persons of one sex at a particular disadvantage compared with persons of the other sex, unless that provision, criterion or practice is objectively justified by a legitimate aim and the means of achieving that aim are legitimate and necessary.

Harassment: a situation where unwanted conduct related to the sex of a person is exhibited with the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of a person and of creating an intimidating, hostile or degrading environment.

Sexual harassment: a situation where unwanted physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct with sexual connotations is exhibited with the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of a person and of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading or offensive environment