Stakeholders Highlight Legal Loopholes As Barriers To Sexual Harassment Reporting

Stakeholders have emphasised the issue of legal loopholes that impede the effective reporting of sexual harassment, which not only hinder victims from coming forward but also obstruct efforts to address and resolve such misconduct comprehensively.

They stated this during a two-day residential training for the media, organised by Alliances for Africa (AFA), to address sexual harassment in tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

The workshop participants equally identified intimidation, lack of protection and, culture of silence, stigmatisation as other challenges in reporting sexual harassment in Nigeria.

Speaking, a digital and gender rights advocate, Mojirayo Oluwatoyin Ogunlana, said sexual harassment is any form of unsolicited and unwanted sexual attention.

Presenting a paper titled “Understanding Sexual Harassment as Gender-based Violence,” she also identified physical, verbal, psychological, sexual and socio-economic as types of sexual and gender-based violence SGBV.

According to her, “Sexual harassment is a form of sexual violence, an act which would be considered a sexual offence under the violence against persons prohibition 2015.”

She noted that sexual harassment takes place in different environments, such as workplaces, walkways, public spaces, schools and online.

“It includes rape assault by penetration, sexual assault, causing someone to engage in sexual activity without consent, sexual comments, jokes or taunting physical behaviour online sexual harassment,” Ogunlana added.

She further said some legal frameworks on sexual harassment in Nigeria include the 1999 constitution as amended, the Child Rights Act 2003 and laws, the criminal code and the VAPP Act 2015, among others.

Also, the Alliances for Africa project manager (AFA), Blessing Duru, described the legal frameworks as a major catalyst capable of helping the media understand gender and sexual-based violence.

She called on the media to find spaces within their work line to fight sexual harassment.

“We need ideas and encouragement in what to do next; it is idea-driven, not activity-based.”

Duru also said the baseline assessment carried out across twelve tertiary institutions in the country revealed alarming facts about sexual harassment.

“We engaged relevant stakeholders across the 12 states as the menace is so deep the cartel is huge,” she said.