employers; and in general the victims continue to be exposed to the harassment, being at
a loss what to do to stop such harassment, or are forced to leave the workplace after
having raised the problem. In this light, it is much more important to take proactive
measures to prevent sexual harassment at work, than to provide reactive remedies for
the victims.
55. Under the National Human Rights Commission Act, NHRCK is confined to the
function of providing reactive remedies with regard to the cases of sexual harassment at
work, while the Ministry of Gender Equality and the Ministry of Labor are responsible
for preventive and proactive actions, respectively in the public sector and the private
sector. The Ministry of Labor requires private companies to give regular employee
education to prevent sexual harassment at work and report the outcomes of the
education to the Ministry, but it seems that in many cases such education simply ends up
in a formality. Therefore, the Ministry should direct more of its resources toward the
activity of inspecting the company-based education to prevent sexual harassment at
work.
56. Another important issue involved in sexual harassment at work is to prevent
'secondary victimization' against the victims of sexual harassment. Indeed, many
victims complain that they faced a harsher suffering and damage after having made an
official allegation that they had been sexually harassed at work. This discourages other
victims from making any allegation: when a victim knows that many other victims
suffered disadvantages just because they had filed a complaint on sexual harassment or
made public their case, he/she would give up raising his/her problem. Furthermore, in
reality, even when it is determined that a person has been sexually harassed at work by a
competent authority, he/she would be victimized and be forced to leave the workplace.
The Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Gender Equality need to review the existing
system of supervision and control to prevent sexual harassment at work and streamline
the system.
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