The suffering ‘can’t speak up’ of people who are sexually harassed

In July 2021, Giang, 26 years old, an employee of a community health care unit in Hanoi, feeling tired, went to the internal clinic of the general ultrasound agency. At the end of the examination, Duc, 34, who examined her, said to leave her phone number for easy communication.

Late in the evening of the same day, Giang received the first message from Germany, encouraging him not to worry, all test parameters were normal. “Colleagues for many years, today I can take care of you”. Giang is a little embarrassed because of this message.

In the following evenings, Duc used the excuse to ask about her health to talk about her feelings, complimenting her beautiful and lovely body. Giang was uncomfortable, reminded to stop, but the next night, Duc texted again, even suggesting sex.

Feeling offended, Giang blocked the number, took pictures of these messages and reported to his superiors about the harassment. She almost cried when recounting, but the female boss did not think this was “harassment” but just “normal joking”.

Nearly half a year after reporting the incident to his superiors, Giang saw that Duc was still working at the same agency, still repeating the same words. “What do you want now? If the story breaks, it will affect the general psychology of everyone and the reputation of the unit”, the boss grumbled when Giang repeated the handling of Duc.

Giang’s colleagues at first showed sympathy and defense, but after half a year, someone thought that she was “doing herself”. Giang gradually felt isolated. While waiting for the change, Giang chose to resign.

In a similar situation, the survey above VnExpress showed that, 13% of readers with 133 votes said that sexual messages and jokes are not sexual harassment. “Although you agree with the victim, you have to look at the facts. This is normal in the workplace”, a reader comment.

The results of the 2019 United Nations Agency for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) Survey on Violence against Women found that 11.4% of women had experienced one or more forms of harassment sex in life.

Dr. Khuat Thu Hong, Director of the Institute for Social Development Studies (ISDS), said that sexual harassment is quite common, but it is “very difficult” to research and make accurate statistics. Partly because the victim is not aware of the harassment. But the bigger reason is that “there are so many things that keep victims from speaking up”.

According to her, with the “mild” level of harassment, the victim may tell friends, colleagues, and relatives. But the more severe the abuse, the more likely the victim is to “dig deep and suffer alone”.

In the same survey above VnExpress, 14% of readers will choose to remain silent when asked what they will do if they are harassed in the office. Some readers also left advice for victims: “You should examine your personality”; “If you continue to do it, do it, if you don’t, then take a break, you can sue no matter what”; “It’s okay to lose nothing.”

Dr. Khuat Thu Hong believes that views are less sympathetic, tendency to blame frighten the victim. When the story gets out, many people will often ask the question: “Why is only that girl being harassed?”.

“In this stream of malicious public opinion, victims often find themselves isolated, affecting their lives and honor; having little sympathy but suspicion, blaming too heavily. That’s the scariest thing,” Ms. Hong said. .

Lawyer Vu Tien Vinh used to give legal support to many victims of sexual harassment, admitting that most of them were afraid and psychologically unstable. When seeking advice from a lawyer, they expressed their determination to speak up and bring the case to light. But when they got home, they were confused, changed, didn’t want to continue.

“Victims will wonder if the denunciation will cause the perpetrator to be handled or not, will it solve any problems, but they will receive more trouble,” the lawyer said.

The second barrier prevents victims from speaking out, according to the two experts above, processing mechanism. Lawyer Vinh said that harassment sometimes happens in a short time, in a hidden location, apart from the victim and the harasser, there are no other witnesses. This is also the reason why it is difficult to investigate, handle and discourage victims.

But according to Dr. Hong, even if the victim has the evidence and overcomes the first fear of “public opinion”, the subsequent processes are very likely to make them give up.

Ms. Hong cited that most developed countries have a one-stop-shop mechanism for victims, which means that they only need to call a single place, the police station, to report and explain the incident once. After that, the victim will be consulted and taken care of with medical, psychological, protective services…

Meanwhile in Vietnam, in theory, there are many departments and agencies, responsible for receiving and handling this problem: the head of the neighborhood, the president of the Women’s Union, the ward police, the chairman of the ward. , company unions, leaders of agencies and organizations protecting women and children…

“Too many people are divided like that, which means no one. Imagine the victim has to bring the same sad story, torment them, present it many times, to how many people,” the Institute said. ISDS chief expressed his opinion.

“The sanctions are not strong enough, making the victims feel they are not protected. Harassment cases being tried often have to wait until they have constituted acts of lewdness, rape and violence,” she said.

Lawyer Vinh analyzed, so far at the legal document level, only the 2019 Labor Code regulates sexual harassment in the workplace. However, it is quite sketchy and simple to state: Sexual harassment at work is an act of a sexual nature by any person towards another person in the workplace without that person’s desire or acceptance. receive.

Before, Code of Conduct on Sexual Harassment in the Workplace in Vietnam, promulgated in 2015 defines sexual harassment as behavior “of a sexual nature that affects the dignity of women and men”. This is unacceptable, undesirable, and unreasonable behavior that offends recipients, and creates an unstable, intimidating, hostile, and unpleasant work environment.

According to this code, sexual harassment can be by making indecent remarks, sexual implication/disclosure of pornographic material… or by physical conduct such as contact, intentional touching or not. desire, touch, caress, pinch, hug, or kiss to sexual assault, rape, rape.

The Penal Code stipulates that only sexual acts such as lewdness, rape, and rape are criminal offenses. Outside of this scope, harassment may only be subject to administrative sanctions. Article 7, Decree 144/2021/ND-CP stipulating people who commit acts of sexual harassment and harassment; pornographic, sexually provocative in public places will be fined 5-8 million VND.

According to UN Women’s research, a big factor that makes victims unable to speak up is fear is not believed. Because many perpetrators have respectable appearances, social prestige, and public opinion that dismisses accusations without scrutiny.

Distrust often occurs when the victim is a child. When telling their parents, children are often accused of making up lies, when in reality, children often do not lie about their injuries.

Sometimes abuse victims stay silent because The perpetrator is a person with power, position, influence. So if denouncing, in addition to the possibility of being considered a fabricator, the victim is also very afraid of being threatened by the perpetrator, taking revenge…

But from a legal perspective, lawyer Vinh advised the victim to immediately give up thinking and thinking about compromising with the perpetrator because this is a “mistake”. Compromise often takes a long time, so by the time the compromise cannot be reached, the evidence and traces may be gone. Second, after the compromise is unsuccessful, the perpetrator may return to challenge the victim because there is no evidence to oppose. Finally, if compromise, the victim has unwittingly let the perpetrator out of the law and may continue to harass others.

Dr. Hong said that victims need to speak up quickly, even though the perpetrators may not be handled in the way they want. This will create social effects, supporting the spirit of other lone victims.

* The victim’s name has been changed.

Hai Thu