A Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights (BAOBAB), has advocated the creation of safe and supportive workspaces, devoid of sexual harassment, for women and girls.
The advocacy also highlighted the need to develop effective strategies for the domestication and implementation of the available legal and policy frameworks to prevent and combat workplace sexual harassment.
BAOBAB argues that sexual harassment threatens the safety, dignity, and productivity of women and girls in workplaces across Nigeria, asserting that although Nigeria has ratified some international commitments such as the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention No. 190 (C190) and the Maputo Protocol, those do not specifically address sexual violence and harassment in the workplace.
The Executive Director of BAOBAB, Bunmi Dipo-Salami, pointed out that sexual harassment is a menace that has been on for years without receiving adequate attention, affirming that there is the need for the domestication and implementation of existing laws to prevent further occurrences and protect women and men, boys and girls from sexual harassment in workplaces, both formal and informal.
Dipo-Salami noted: “I’ve looked at our labour laws, I do not see any strong pronouncement. And then we have the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act being considered for amendment. It’s not strong on sexual harassment. It has a description but it does not really come out strong to say this is sexual harassment, we do not tolerate it, and these are the sanctions for sexual harassment allegations.”
The BAOBAB boss revealed that the purpose of the roundtable is to bring the voices of stakeholders together to explore the missed opportunities in recent sexual harassment cases in the country, brainstorm suggestions on a way out and seek protection for others that have not experienced sexual harassment.
She said, “It’s very important to look at how we can use this experience to further the work that advocates have been doing over the years, trying to get laws, trying to implement even the laws that are available, trying to raise awareness of people, of women and men to the availability of laws, to how they can seek justice, and to the mechanisms that are available to them.”
Similarly, the Programmes Manager, Gender Mobile Initiative, Mariam Muktar Ali, opined that it’s important to have policies that address sexual harassment in the workplace, to enforce such policies, and encourage confidential reportage so that people will feel free or safe to report incidents, noting that organisations should also invest in educating their workers on what sexual harassment is.
She called on the National Assembly to ensure the reading and passage of the sexual harassment bill before it, as the bill will check sexual harassment not only in communities but also in homes and workplaces.
Ali stated, “Our government can give a listening ear, a consideration, to such bills and encourage it to be passed into law. That way, it goes beyond what the organisations have as a policy, which is just a working document for that organisation. But when we have laws that speak categorically against sexual harassment, it is another level entirely.”
On his part, the Deputy Chief of Party, West Africa Network for Peace Building (WANEP), Abuja, Manji Danjuma Mangrock, noted that although Nigeria has a lot of legal frameworks on sexual harassment, there is a gap of political will in terms of implementation, suggesting a bottom-up approach whereby the development of some of the frameworks would start at the grassroots level, instead of a top-bottom approach.
Mangrock noted, “When the conversation starts at the grassroots level the community stakeholders are involved and are part of the conversation. When the conversation is modernised, enhanced, and gets to the bigger platforms, it becomes easier for the grassroots people to accept what they have brought in.”
For Anne Lawal, Programme Director, BAOBAB, it is important to put in place legal frameworks, such as sanctions, against sexual harassment in the workplace, in order to create safe workspaces for women and girls so they would not be excluded from the process of work and would not be abused.
Lawal said, “We do have a lot of existing legislations and frameworks. But the gap is that we don’t specifically address workplace violations as it relates to sexual abuse. So it’s important for the government to ensure that women are protected and come up with a policy that everybody, nationwide, can use at all levels in Nigeria to ensure that women’s rights are protected.”
She disclosed that women in Nigeria make up about 49.44% of the population and excluding them by not creating safe workspaces for them will affect the nation’s overall GDP.
The one-day roundtable, with the theme: “Creating Safe and Supportive Workplace Environment for Women and Girls,” was held in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, and organised by BAOBAB, supported by African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF). It brought together key stakeholders from the media, government, development agencies, the academia, and the civic space.
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