Sexual harassment: What to remember?
What are the legal provisions?
RFLD is currently running a campaign to combat sexual harassment. We invite you to discover the case of the following countries: Mali, Benin, Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire.
In most cases, sexual harassment is defined as the repeated imposition of sexual remarks or proposals on a person (a woman in this case) without her consent. It involves insults or obscene gestures that undermine a person’s dignity by humiliating, intimidating or hurting them. Being subjected to these gestures or words can cause great moral pain, such as fear, feeling sad, dirty and disgusting. In Africa, and more specifically in French-speaking Africa, it’s a crime forbidden by law and punishable by prison.
How often have we heard unscrupulous teachers and bosses talk in such terms about their pupils/students/learners/employees, from whom they think they can obtain unconditional sexual favors.
The refusal of their advances by these girls/women most often leads to the phenomenon of sexual harassment. However, in the absence of reliable official statistics, some African countries deny the existence of this phenomenon. Yet sexual harassment is a sad reality that continues to wreak enormous havoc.
CASE OF MALI
Known as a violation based on relationships of domination and intimidation that can occur not only in the workplace, but also in all other places, sexual harassment in Mali is also a form of repression. In this country of around nineteen sixty-six million inhabitants, the majority of whom are women, sexual harassment takes the form of implicit or explicit promises of reward made in order to obtain agreement to a sexual request. Implicit or explicit threats of reprisal, whether or not they materialize, made with the aim of obtaining agreement to a request of a sexual nature, or made following a refusal to agree to such a request; remarks or behaviour with a sexual connotation which can reasonably be perceived as creating a negative study or work environment. In Mali, this subject remains taboo to the point of being treated in the same way as simple gender-based violence, simply because the main victims are often afraid to speak out. There is only one reason for this reluctance: fear of being denigrated by society or of reprisals. Unfortunately, there is no legislation in Mali to punish this phenomenon, which is eating away at society.
BENIN
The news in Benin was marked by the sexual harassment suffered by certain employees of respected institutions. Unfortunately, this is the sad reality facing women in these institutions. We’d be remiss if we didn’t salute the bravery and courage of the Amazons who have denounced it. In fact, it’s not uncommon in our institutions for employees (especially women) to be offered services of a sexual nature. In this way, the female employee is obliged to satisfy her superior’s sexual desires, at the risk of being deprived of certain benefits inherent to her position.
What psychological pressure does this put on women?
Once a woman has fallen victim to this practice, the law of silence is imposed. It’s up to her not to make waves, not to destroy the family, the couple, the institution, the reputation or the career of the aggressor; to be understandable, to be kind, to understand that it’s not that serious, there are worse things elsewhere.
And yet, Law N° 2006-19 of July 17, 2006 on the repression of sexual harassment and the protection of victims, and Law N°2011-26 of January 09, 2012 on the prevention and repression of violence against women, are alive and well. According to the Beninese legislator, under the penal code, any repeated ordering, use of words, gestures, writing or messages, threats, coercion, pressure or coercion of any kind is punishable by law, to exert pressure or use any other means in order to obtain from a person in a situation of vulnerability or subordination, favors of a sexual nature for their benefit or for the benefit of a third party against the will of the person harassed is punishable by imprisonment of between one and two years and a fine of between 100 and 1. 000,000 FCFA.
THE CASE OF BURKINA FASO
Like Benin, Burkina-Faso has made the phenomenon of sexual harassment its hobbyhorse (Law n°51-2015 CNT). Its legal provisions on the repression and prevention of this phenomenon are reinforced in its labor code. Indeed, sexual harassment between colleagues is defined in this provision as any act consisting in obtaining sexual favors from another person by threat or intimidation. Burkina-Faso’s labor code provides for a prison sentence of one to three years and a fine of 300,000 to 500,000 francs for anyone found guilty of this despicable and destructive phenomenon.
THE CASE OF CÔTE D’IVOIRE
The Republic of Côte d’Ivoire is no exception to the common phenomenon that plagues most French-speaking African countries, namely sexual harassment (Law no. 98-756 of December 23, 1998, amending and supplementing Law no. 81-640 of July 31, 1981, establishing a Penal Code, new article 356). But as in a serious state, designed to ensure a climate of peace and tranquillity for the population, in this case for women, the fight against this phenomenon is a reality in this country. Shaken by this phenomenon in the 2010s, and with its high population density and urban means of mobility and integration leading to irreverence and acts of violence, Cote d’Ivoire has put in place a number of different methods to combat sexual abuse. These different methods of combating are backed up by the 2015 Ivorian penal code, which distinguishes between rape and sexual harassment, and moreover qualifies it in article 354 as a crime and indecent assault. Ivorian law punishes sexual harassment with a prison sentence of one to three years and a fine of 360,000 to 1 million CFA francs. With regard to acts of aggression, the Ivorian legislator has two main points to make concerning rape of a tortious nature and acts of sexual aggression. These acts are punishable by imprisonment.
