Sexual harassment in Albania has spread, little denounced

In an exclusive story about the Voice of America a young girl tells how she was harassed by her boss. The Civil Society's Commissioner for Protection from Discrimination and Activists admits that the charges of these crimes are very few, in relation to the extent of their spread.

The reasons are related to social mentality and prejudice; meanwhile, the obstacle to reporting remains the difficulty of finding evidence for the culprits.

A young student in Tirana who has been preserved with anonymity says that to cope with the expenses of life in the capital, having come from a distant city, she had started a job. It was my first work” she says. In time, her boss proposes promotion.

Denonscripter: “I was convinced I didn't deserve it, but I couldn't understand everything. One day I felt the door of my office opened (because my office was more isolated than others); it had found a good position to have an office to achieve its goals. He tried to force me. At that moment, I felt totally helpless and said to myself: “ended”. But I don't know, an inner voice helped me out, and I managed to get rid of him” says the girl.

It's just a part of a girl's confession, linked to denouncing the boss's sexual harassment, which ended in violence. But how many women and girls today feel threatened by this form of violence, and how many manage to denounce it. Since 2015, according to police statistics, reports of sexual violence are zero, and those for sexual harassment are over 230, a very low figure against 8 thousand women and girls who received court protection, for physical violence against them in these years.

The commissioner for defence from discrimination, Robert Gayda, says there have been no such genuine complaints and adds that during the investigation, or inspection of other complaints, other complaints have emerged and elements related to sexual harassment.

Even activist Fabjola Egro, who heads a women's protection association, reinforces this conclusion. She says there's very little denouncing of violence and sexual harassment, but that's not because it doesn't happen, she explains. Lady Egro says sexual harassment and lack of security in women and girls is very high.

Even the police, in official information about the Voice of America, say that there is no high rate of denouncing about this crime category, because of the different causes, where it sets apart issues of honour, fear of environmental response, of the loss of the workplace in cases of sexual harassment, etc.

The reasons for low reporting are numerous in a society that continues to prejudge sexually raped and sexually harassed women rather than rapists. That's what the sexually molested girl says by her boss, in the story about the Voice of America, a statement supported by the Commissioner for Protection from Discrimination and Protagonists of civil society.

Rapist sexually violated: I was wondering where to turn because my parents wouldn't understand this part. They would judge me, saying to me: You could have provoked him, or it's your fault. You'd better shut up.

Even the Commissioner for Protection from Discrimination, Robert Gayda, says there is a reluctance on the part of women and girls to denounciate violence and serial harassment. He says he prefers not to denounce these crimes, even because of social prejudice. ”

Former law commissioner Irma Barak reinforces this line of thought when she says that the low number of denouncing is linked to mentality, which renders such judgments as: provoked, provoked by the way he is dressed, or behaved.

Women's protection activist Fabiola Egro provides and gives the reasons for this uncertainty, when she says it is multiplied by Albanian patriarchal society, where a deep maskilism prevails. With a tone of anger, Mrs. Egro says that <x0 ... these witches come from the darkness of centuries and dress in public, political and criminal positions”.

Since 2013, sexual violence and sexual harassment are criminal acts and are sentenced to 3-7 and 1-5 years of freedom. Even in the police there is a special sector for these criminal acts. But not in all cases they are considered criminal acts. There are also administrative measures for sexual harassment at work and at large. But if physical violence leaves marks and burdens of evidence easier, the same cannot be said of violence and sexual harassment.

Commissioner for Protection from Discrimination Robert Gayda says that what has resulted in the review of complaints, in inspection and investigation, is to prove these cases. Mr. Gayda explains that they remain only at the level of statements of complaint and subject against which discrimination is claimed.

The denounciator, in her story about the Voice of America, says she is in a difficult situation, but she has the support of an organization that has taken on defense.

“Face always has”She says- Because he's a man of power, he's a man with a voice higher than my”

The Commissioner for Protection from Discrimination comes with a concrete proposal, facilitating the position of a woman, or a abused girl, or sexually violated, when he says that girls, or women who feel threatened, can record conversations and phone messages. Even though they do not serve as evidence in the prosecution and court, explains Mr. Gayda, they are again factors helping the investigation.

Irma Barak, a law teacher, makes concrete details about what is called sexual harassment. She says that many times people conceive violence, but the rate is simpler than that. Mrs. Barak explains that sexual harassment can include humor, a sexist joke that has sexual harassment in its content. Among other things, it singles out an e - mail, or a transitional mood, but it's actually a drive, as long as it's not accepted by the side.

In this situation, where the line between normal behavior and sexual harassment at the workplace is performable, civil society representatives feel that public institutions, but not only, based on the Code of Labour and the Law for Discrimination, through a unifying practice, should draw up policies and internal documents for sexual harassment. Thus, employees can be known by the legal line of conduct. In Albania, among the few institutions that have a document on sexual harassment is the State Police.

In support of sexually raped women, a centre is expected to provide medical, advisory, legal and police investigation services. This is why a working group is working in the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs. Women and girls, today, can report violence and sexual harassment to the Police, the Prosecutor, to the Commissioner for Protection of Discrimination, overcoming the strong barriers to mentality. As long as their voice is superior to the voice of the bully.

Denonscripter“Dunger has a force on us, which makes you feel like you're guilty. ...and doing so makes us silent. But we must not be silent. We have the strength not to waste our living, to talk and face them, always denouncing”- says the girl, the victim of sexual violence.