How to act if you personally or one of your colleagues, relatives encountered sexual harassment or abuse at work? Or what to do when you find out that money, services, help or gifts are offered to beneficiaries in exchange for sex? Situations are not easy, but vital, because no one is immune from them. And therefore it is necessary to understand how to recognize harassment, exploitation or abuse and how to act in each of these cases.
This was discussed during the training seminar organized by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) IOM Ukraine for the NGO team "Association of Democratic Development", which implements the project "Psychosocial support of vulnerable population groups in the communities of Chernihiv region" in partnership with IOM with the financial support of the German Government (BMZ) through the German Development Bank KfW.
Among the topics covered at the seminar are – protection against sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment (SSEND), as well as issues of gender and migration. In an interactive form, participants learned to identify cases of sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment and respond to them correctly. Special attention was paid to the definition of sexual offenses and responsibility for them.
During the second part of the seminar, the policy of ZSEND in the organization and 8 standards of the UN and the International Organization for Migration were discussed. These standards are focused on the development of policies for protection against sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment in organizations. The presence of such a policy and its compliance ensures beneficiaries and beneficiaries, employees and employees, makes the protection and response system more transparent and accessible.
