MLP in gender equality seminar - Tackling sexual harassment, September 2017, Denmark

The mutual learning seminar on sexual harassment was held in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 27-28 September 2017. The seminar discussed how to address and prevent sexual harassment, with a focus on good practices in tackling digital sexual abuse in the host country, Denmark, and a national campaign to address sexual harassment in public transport in the associate country, France.

Denmark introduced an ambitious inter-ministerial programme to tackle the alarming increase of digital sexual abuse in 2017. It has a particular focus on children and young people, with responses to increase safety, consent and address risks of sharing photos online. The Stepping Up Initiatives Against Sexual Abuse is being implemented through inter-ministerial coordination between the Ministry of Equal Opportunities, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Education. It brings together political, social and institutional actions across three main areas of intervention: prevention and knowledge, help for victims, and sanctions for perpetrators. The initiatives have a broad and ambitious scope and a key aspect is that the Danish approach is based on trust, freedom, information, and a model of young people as capable and responsible consumers/agents.   

France has introduced a National Action Plan and campaign on sexual violence and sexual harassment in public transport, aimed at making public transport safe for women. Twelve concrete measures have been developed in three groups of actions: better prevention, more efficient reaction and better support to victims. Examples of actions include an awareness-raising campaign on the railways, feedback from women through participative safety walks, telephone and text emergency alert systems, and better training of transport staff and police in handling complaints. These initiatives are implemented with a gender-equality framework and include measures to promote gender equality in transport sector employment and reduce the potential of a hostile working environment for women. Coupled with these measures is a commitment from the Secretary of State for gender equality to end sexual harassment in transport and to introduce tougher new legislation in this area.

The good practices from Denmark and France provoked a lively discussion and a valuable learning experience amongst participants. The seminar concluded that it is essential that new, innovative and gender-sensitive approaches are developed to tackle sexual harassment in public spaces, public transport and in digital technologies. The good practices discussed at the seminar highlighted the importance of all relevant stakeholders taking a role in preventing and tackling sexual harassment, alongside high-level government commitments. Recommendations made by seminar participants centred on the importance of strong legislation, coupled with integrated programmes designed to prevent and tackle all forms of sexual harassment, and a common EU-wide definition of sexual harassment that includes digital sexual abuse and sexual harassment in public spaces and in transport.