By Tavita Natasha Mpala
The Zimbabwe Gender Commission has stated that sexual harassment is a violation of human rights during the fresh man orientation at Great Zimbabwe University.
In an interview with the publication, ZGC public education officer Theresah Danda stated that sexual harassment is more rampant in tertiary universities.
“Sexual harassment can be defined as unwelcome sexual behaviour, it manifests itself in different forms, it could be in the form of comments on how a person dresses or their features.
Anything that you which is sexual and the recipient does not consent to becomes sexual harassment. At Universities there are different type of groups that include lecturers, students and the local community and there are cross related forms of sexual harassment in among these groups.”
When we were talking to students they asked questions on when to draw the line during courtship, if the person you are asking out shuts you down be careful as your persistency may be read as harassment. We are advocating for men and women to be par, through our research we try to build that gap and empower women.”
She added on to say that the commission is open to handling cases of harassment in order to empower women.
“When you have been violated either at home, school or work but you feel like the reporting structures are corrupt or not helpful, get in touch with the commission and we will help you. Many times people who are sexually abused and harassed don’t report because the perpetrator will intimidate them by ridiculing to reporting systems, they will use their power or knowledge of the system to make sure that victims do not report.”
The Zimbabwe Gender Commission was established in terms of Section 245 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe and operationalized through the Zimbabwe Gender Commission (ZGC) Act (Chapter 10:31). The commission seeks to foster gender equality.
The Commissions objectives includes, supporting and entrenching human rights and democracy, to protect the sovereignty and interests of the people and to secure the observance of democratic values and principles by the State and all institutions and agencies of government