Workplace Sexual Harassment Increasing in Moldova: Survey

Twenty per cent of women in Moldova have been sexually harassed at their workplace, suggests a study published on Tuesday by the Partnership for Development Centre, an NGO based in Chisinau.

Of the women who said they had been harassed at work, four per cent said they had been asked for sex in return for certain rewards, intimidated or threatened with force.

In a separate survey of female students, 20 per cent of the respondents said that they have been threatened or asked to have sex with their teachers in order to get higher grades or to pass exams at university.

"We all know that we have a legal framework that prohibits discrimination and harassment in both the private and the public arena, but the reality shows that the number of people who are harassing [women] is constantly increasing," public policy analyst Natalia Covrig told a press conference to launch the study.

Covrig said that the victims face various legal and institutional challenges as well as the negative attitude of the population in general.

Another survey carried out for the study suggested that around 60 per cent of Moldovans do not have any sympathy for victims of sexual harassment, with some saying that they provoked the incidents themselves with their improper clothes or behaviour.

"In 10 years, we have noticed that this phenomenon has grown, and what is even worse is that the incidence of serious forms has increased," Covrig said, referring to the period from 2006 to 2016.

Arina Turcanu, a lawyer at the Women's Law Centre, stressed that the number of convictions for sexual harassment is very low in Moldova, and often women get discouraged because they have to face the aggressor in court.

Alina Andronache of the Partnership for Development...