Source: Rwanda Focus
In many countries around the world, the past decade has seen the emergence of laws and regulations to protect people, but mainly women, from sexual harassment. This has proven an efficient tool against all kinds of unwelcome advances, be it sexual innuendos by men, groping or stalking - whether at work or in other aspects of public life.

In Rwanda, it seems, apart from severe crimes such as rape or violence against women which are punishable by law, it seems women have little to fall back on when they are the subject of unwelcome attention. Yet in the light of a study published by Transparency International Rwanda on gender-based corruption (GBC) in the workplace (see article on page 4), and which shows that the problem exists in more than half of private and public organizations, it seems that such legislation would be more than welcome.

Not surprisingly, the study shows that the vast majority of victims are women, and the perpetrators mostly men in senior positions. Those most at risk are female job-seekers and secretaries. The most obvious form of GBC is forcing a woman to have sex in return for a favor, and very often this goes unreported mainly because the victims fear getting themselves in trouble (not getting the job for a jobseeker, or losing her job in case of the secretary).

One of the recommendations of Transparency is a review of the law on corruption to make it specific on the nature of GBC and its corresponding sanctions. While that would certainly be welcome, it is rather limited in scope and does not cover a vast range of forms of harassment.

For instance, it does not protect a female employee from groping male colleagues; admitted, the threshold to report such behavior to superiors is lower than in the case of GBC, but more forceful protection by a law would still be a good thing. And what to say about a male coach of a female sports team who asks for sexual favors in return for a place in the team; is this still corruption?

Strengthening the corruption law would certainly not protect a woman from harassment elsewhere - whether it is being groped in a bar, being stalked or having to suffer sexual insinuations from a neighbor.

Therefore, while measures should certainly be taken to tackle GBC, legislators might consider a law protecting women (and men) against all kinds of physical and verbal sexual harassment. For a country with a stellar record on gender equality, this is long overdue.

• Rwanda