Guide: International Legal Standards on Combatting Sexual Harassment

This guide is available in English, Georgian and Ukrainian.

Sexual harassment is a persisting human rights violation. It is a complex phenomenon which predominantly affects women and girls. It results from a culture of gender discrimination, unequal gender relations and power dynamics. As such, it is a form of sexual and gender-based violence and gender discrimination.

Our Guide aims to:

• increase understanding of what constitutes sexual harassment
• provide lawyers with the tools necessary to ensure that cases are dealt with appropriately at the domestic level, and where victims wish to bring claims before regional or international human rights mechanisms these claims are well presented and argued

It identifies the behaviours that may constitute sexual harassment, including unwanted sexual comments or “jokes” in the workplace, “catcalling” or “wolf-whistling” in public spaces, and non-consensual image or video sharing, or threats of doing so in the digital realm.