{"id":5139,"date":"2025-01-15T11:16:53","date_gmt":"2025-01-15T11:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aleg-romania.eu\/?p=5139"},"modified":"2025-01-15T11:22:22","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T11:22:22","slug":"a-l-e-g-calls-for-sustained-governmental-commitment-to-end-sexual-harassment-following-ecthr-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aleg-romania.eu\/en\/a-l-e-g-calls-for-sustained-governmental-commitment-to-end-sexual-harassment-following-ecthr-ruling\/","title":{"rendered":"A.L.E.G. calls for sustained governmental commitment to end sexual harassment following ECtHR ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sibiu, [15.01.2025]<\/span><\/i> – A.L.E.G. has submitted its third report<\/a> to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in the case of<\/span> C. v. Romania <\/span><\/i>– the first judgment in the history of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on sexual harassment in the world of work. The Committee of Ministers is the body responsible for overseeing the implementation of the ECtHR judgment.<\/span><\/p>\n

The report, backed by 21 other NGOs and trade unions, urges the Committee to keep the <\/span>C. v. Romania<\/span><\/i> case under enhanced supervision and to ensure that Romania adopts robust reform to prevent similar human rights violations and to strengthen protection against harassment in the world of work, in line with the standards of the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention on Violence and Harassment.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 2022 ECtHR judgment found that Romania had violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, on the right to private life, due to significant shortcomings in the criminal investigation, including the revictimization of Ms. C. As A.L.E.G. has\u00a0 highlighted in <\/span>its previous<\/span><\/a> reports, the case of <\/span>C. v. Romania<\/span><\/i> represents a general and systematic problem of human rights violations in the context of harassment, including sexual harassment, in the world of work.<\/span><\/p>\n

Progress has been made but challenges persist<\/b><\/p>\n

Romania’s recent ratification of the ILO Convention on Violence and Harassment (C190) marked a positive step in efforts to eliminate harassment in the world of work and protect workers. In 2024, under the coordination of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, an inter-ministerial working group on the implementation of C190 was formed, which included representatives of civil society, including A.L.E.G., trade unions and employers\u2019. The working group, in close cooperation with the Ministry of Labor, formulated a number of amendments to the Labor Code, the Law on Labor Inspection and the Law on Occupational Safety and Health, in order to harmonize the legal framework with C190 standards. However, the legislative process to adopt these amendments has not been initiated yet. In the absence of the adoption of these amendments, significant gaps in the legal framework remain and workers are not adequately protected against harassment at the workplace.<\/span><\/p>\n

Furthermore, the current criminal law gives victims of sexual harassment only three months to lodge a criminal complaint, a limitation which restricts action to justice and does not reflect the complexities faced by victims when filing a complaint. There is no systematic monitoring and evaluation policy at national level on the implementation of the law and no comprehensive and disaggregated data collection policy to assess the full extent of harassment and violence in the world of work and to adopt targeted measures for the most vulnerable workers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Recommendations<\/b><\/p>\n

A.L.E.G. calls on the Committee of Ministers:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Keep the case of <\/span>C. v. Romania<\/span><\/i> under enhanced supervision to ensure the adoption of a robust reform to prevent similar human rights violations.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Request the Romanian authorities for an updated action plan, including specific measures to bring national legislation into line with C190 standards, including the adoption of the proposed amendments by the inter-ministerial working group on C190 implementation, and the extension of the statutory time limit lodging criminal compliants.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Request the Romanian authorities to adopt a plan for systematic monitoring and disaggregated data collection, including regular surveys and comprehensive evaluations of the law enforcement mechanisms.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The 21 NGOs and trade unions supporting the report submitted to the Committee of Ministers and the recommendations made are: Association A.R.T. Fusion; Association Center for Public Innovation; Association for the Defense of Human Rights in Romania Helsinki Committee – APADOR-CH; Association E-Romnja; Association Feminism Romania; Association Her Time Ro; Association Iele-S\u00e2nziene; Association of Independent Midwives; Association Plural: Association Ema, Association Sex vs. Barza; Novapolis Association – Center for Analysis and Initiatives for Development; R\u0103d\u0103u\u021biul Civic Association; Intercultural Research and Communication Center Association; Action Center for Equality and Human Rights (ACTEDO); FILIA Center; Partnership for Equality Center; National Trade Union Confederation CARTEL ALFA; Young for Young Foundation; Society for Feminist Analysis – AnA; Society for Contraceptive and Sexual Education.<\/span><\/p>\n

    The communication sent to the Committee of Ministers can be accessed <\/span>here.<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

    ______________________________________________________<\/p>\n

    This is part of the “Employers for Respect” campaign initiated and coordinated by A.L.E.G. The gaps in the legal framework on harassment in the world of work and the weak implementation of the law are documented in <\/span>this policy brief<\/span><\/a> published by A.L.E.G. in 2021 and in<\/span> the thematic policy brief on harassment of migrant workers<\/span><\/a>, published by A.L.E.G. in 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Sibiu, [15.01.2025] – A.L.E.G. has submitted its third report to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in the case of C. v. Romania – the first judgment in the history of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on sexual harassment in the world of work. The Committee of Ministers is the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[694],"tags":[980,981],"class_list":["post-5139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advocacy-en","tag-c-v-romania","tag-prevent-sexual-harassment-in-the-workplace"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aleg-romania.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aleg-romania.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aleg-romania.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aleg-romania.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aleg-romania.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5139"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/aleg-romania.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5141,"href":"https:\/\/aleg-romania.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5139\/revisions\/5141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aleg-romania.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aleg-romania.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aleg-romania.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aleg-romania.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}