Let’s end harassment in the workplace.

In the wake of the dialogue started by high-profile harassment cases in professional settings, followed by the 'MeToo' hashtag on social media platforms, ATLAS women met to share their collective experiences, and to discuss how to develop and implement concrete suggestions for awareness-raising and harassment prevention in our various workplaces. Increasingly women and men are speaking out against these entrenched patterns of gender discrimination and bearing witness to their inappropriate encounters in professional settings. The recent wave of high-profile reporting of women and men against harassment has empowered others to also speak out. #ATLASToo seeks to harness the solidarity within our community to advocate on these issues, as well as to inform and offer general support, in particular, to women working in public international law.

#WhyIDidntReport

From 11-22 January 2021, the ATLAS network and the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice held an awareness-raising Twitter campaign to highlight the scale of workplace misconduct (including sexual harassment, bullying, abuse of authority, corruption, racism, ableism, homophobia, sexual assault, and other forms of violence) in international justice institutions, as well as the roadblocks to reporting mistreatment. ATLAS tweeted 24 testimonials of women working in public international law who shared their heartfelt and distressing reasons for not reporting workplace misconduct at international justice institutions, including retaliation, fear, stigma, gender and race bias, and dysfunctional reporting mechanisms. While chronic underreporting has been misconstrued to minimise and underestimate the extent of the problem of workplace misconduct, the reality is that barriers to reporting are immense.

This campaign was informed by the IBA’s Us Too? Bullying and Sexual Harassment in the Legal Profession Report which “identifie[d] chronic underreporting of incidents, with 57% of bullying cases and 75% of sexual harassment cases not reported, for reasons including the profile of the perpetrator and the target’s fear of repercussions.”

We call on the leadership of international justice institutions, as well as the legal profession as a whole, to assess harmful workplace cultures and to develop tailor-made measures to address chronic underreporting and systemic workplace misconduct, in order to promote a safe and supportive working environment for all.

#ATLASToo Insight