Topic: Workplace Sexual Harassment
Country: Germany
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Germany position papers GLIMUN 2018 committees
In May 2018, the Chief Executives Board held a special session during their meeting in the UK to address sexual harassment. The Board recognized harassment as stemming from a broader culture of discrimination and privilege, deeply rooted in gender inequality. The UN Women is a two-day event to bring together feminist thinkers and gender experts to discuss and inform UN Women’s current work on harassment, with a publication on sexual harassment and assault due out in the fall of 2018. This committee has the opportunity to find policies and protocols to aid women in the struggle against harassment in the workplace worldwide. The main focus of this topic is to find the best solution that does not cross gender equality lines, but give women the chance to fight back if they feel they are being sexually harassed in the work environment.
In Germany today, we have put in laws that protects women in the work environment from being sexually harassed. The “General Equal Treatment Act” was created in 2006, and grants employees considerable rights and makes it clear and precise, what is sexual harassment. Beyond the most obvious and serious cases involving physical assault or worse, sexual harassment in the workplace, according to the law, means: unwanted physical contact, leering, lewd looks, sexual comments, sexist jokes, or the displaying of pornographic material. The legal obligation on the part of employers to deal with allegations appropriately and to protect employees is also clear, yet there are still 'legal gaps' that need to be closed. In Germany today, we find that one-third and a half of all women in the workplace had experienced forms of sexual harassment, meaning that women are slowly raising awareness, and breaking the taboo of workplace sexaul harassment. The Laws in Germany are tougher laws meant to curb harassment, and can be taken into a criminal offense. In the sexual Harassment laws they state, “Sexual harassment shall be deemed to be discrimination in relation to Section 2(1) Nos 1 to 4, when an unwanted conduct of a sexual nature, including unwanted sexual acts and requests to carry out sexual acts, physical contact of a sexual nature, comments of a sexual nature, as well as the unwanted showing or public exhibition of pornographic images, takes place with the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of the person concerned, in particular where it creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.”
Previously stated, Germany has laws and rules that corner sexual harassment and break it. Learning from Germany, many other countries can find simple ways to prevent or even block harassment in the workplace by putting together laws that say exactly what counts as sexual harassment and how it can be handled with the victim and the predator. One way all countries and nations can help stop this ongoing problem in the workplace, is spreading awareness and finding the right way to deal with it besides being afraid to lose a job because of it
