Sexual Harassment
WORLD: HUMAN RIGHTS
2020
UN WOMEN, Sexual Harassment in the informal economy: Farmworkers and domestic workers, September 2020.
«This paper is organised as follows: chapter two provides a gender analysis, an overview of the informal economy and of the prevalence of sexual harassment. Chapter three provides a summary of international standards on sexual discrimination and fundamental labour rights, which are described in Annex I. Chapter four discusses the lack of social and legal protection for workers in the informal economy. Chapters five and six focus on sexual harassment in informal domestic work and farm work. The last chapter offers suggestions for action by governments and civil society organisations. Research on sexual harassment of workers in the informal sector has three main limitations. First, studies show that a high percentage of sexual harassment against informal sector workers is underreported and that differing understandings of what constitutes sexual harassment causes variation in reports. Second, immigration status concerns and risks of being reported to authorities understandably hinder the engagement of undocumented migrant workers in surveys or interviews that seek to capture their numbers and experiences. Finally, there is variety across countries in definitions of what is meant by, and thus counted as, “informal” work. These challenges complicate understanding of the scale of the problem and inhibit the building of effective interventions.»