United Nations Deals with Sexual Harassment Complaints

Staff Writer, May 29, 2009

The Wall Street Journal recently published a story about an embarrassing string of sexual harassment complaints from workers who are employed by the United Nations. Though the organization is committed to protecting human rights, hundreds of its employees have complained that the system for handling complaints is arbitrary and unfair.

For example, one woman complained that she was sexually harassed by her supervisor in Gaza for several years. When he was investigated by one of his colleagues, he was cleared. Many cases take years to resolve, and some women who have complained about unfair sexual treatment have said that their employment contracts often went unrenewed and that the men who stood accused were often retired or forced to resign, without any disciplinary action taken.

The Secretary-General of the U.N. has agreed that there is a great deal of problems and has promised many advocacy groups that he will work to make a change to the system. On July 1, the internal justice system of the U.N. will receive an overhaul, so that it can better handle employee disputes, including claims of sexual harassment.