PODGORICA SOS PHONE LINE FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE: ALMOST EVERY WOMEN HAS SUFFERED FORM OFSEXUAL HARASSMENT IN THE WORKPLACE

March 5, 2004 – (OneWorld.net – Montenegro) “Private entrepreneurs offer their female employees to the business partners – Sexual Harassment, in all forms and in all places, has become so wide-spread that such behavior on the behalf of men is now socially accepted to the extent that women can’t recognize it” estimates Biljana Zekovic, Executive Director of SOS Phone Line for Women and Children Victims of Violence.

She says that one can freely claim that almost all working women experienced, at one time or the other, some sexualized encounters at work, instigated by men in higher positions, even if they did not recognize them as such. Last week, the Bureau for Gender Equality of the Government of Montenegro presented the initiative to introduce provisions on sexual blackmail and harassment into the new Law on Protection at the Workplace. The initiative received warm welcome, but the people at the SOS Phone Line think that it is just a partial solution, and that similar provisions should be incorporated into the Criminal Code of Montenegro.

”Women can be sexually harassed in any other place, in the school, at the university, on the street... A much wider formulation with priority given to the psychological aspect should be given to such offences, having in mind that harassment does not necessarily involve physical contact,” Zekovic explained that position.

It would be necessary to discern these offences from those acts that have the goal to sexually arouse oneself, or cause sexual excitement with another person, because of the fact that sexual harassment can have as its goal only discrimination, which would make the woman humiliated and less worthy. According to the definition accepted by the Council of Europe, sexual harassment is “every unwanted behaviour of sexual nature or other behaviour based on sex that may endanger the dignity of men and women in the workplace.”

Although she doesn’t deny that men, too, can be victims of such offences, Zekovic, nevertheless, points out that in Montenegro, quite the opposite is more common and more evident. One of the basic characteristics of sexual harassment is, as she says, its deceitfulness.
“Men are not naive. Their behaviour is not always direct, but rather ambiguous. For instance, if a woman reacts and defends herself, a men might say that she imagined it all, which is a very nice excuse,” she concluded.

The experiences of the SOS Phone clients lead to the conclusion that the privatization trend has caused a general deterioration of the situation of working women.

”The owner or the director of a private company doesn’t have to explain his hiring of firing decisions.

Harassment that often leads to sexual aggression, which leads to rape, firings of middle-aged women, offering young girls as escort to business partners, all are just several serious consequences that results from the tolerance of this society regarding sexual harassment” warns Zekovic. She doesn’t expect full support by the authorities, at least regarding the introduction of this criminal offence into the legislation.

”The reason for that is the fact that most of these criminal offences are committed by people in powerful positions. All forms of sexual harassment and aggression on women have always been just means of establishing control, which, on the other hand, helps preserve the social order bases on inequality and misbalance of power between the sexes, on privileges and domination of men” concluded Biljana Zekovic and added that preventive work would be needed, one of which may be to introduce a system of “good manners” for the employees.

From: http://www.oneworld.net/article/view/80824/1/