The State Comptroller's report deals with the issue of local authorities' handling and prevention of sexual harassment, in fact it is a follow-up report on local authorities whose previous audit, conducted in 2019, found deficiencies in their conduct with regard to handling complaints of sexual harassment.
The follow-up was conducted from June to September 2022, examining whether the authorities in the previous report and the Ministry of Interior acted to correct the main deficiencies that arose regarding the regulation of sexual harassment in local authorities, regarding the appointment of sexual harassment prevention officers in local authorities, regarding the actions of local authorities to prevent sexual harassment, and regarding aspects of their handling of sexual harassment complaints.
Young resident of Rahat suspected of posting video documenting sexual harassment of young woman | From TikTok
As stated, the audit was carried out in local authorities whose conduct deficiencies were found in the previous audit: um al-Fahm, Or Akiva, Elad, Be'er Yaakov, Hadera, Tiberias, Tirat HaCarmel, Migdal HaEmek, Nesher, Nazareth, Rechasim and Hof HaCarmel. In addition, 77 local authorities that the previous audit did not find their gender responsible for preventing sexual harassment were also examined. In addition, the Comptroller's Office conducted a survey in the 12 local authorities examined, in order to obtain information about the employees' sense of safety. The survey was answered by 866 employees, out of 7,552, which reveals, among other things, that 51% of employees of the local authorities examined indicated that they do not know who is responsible for preventing sexual harassment in the authority in which they work, 14% of the employees indicated that they have experienced sexual harassment or that they know of someone in their workplace who has experienced sexual harassment, 22% of the employees indicated that they define the workplace in the authority as not safe or moderately safe, Against sexual harassment. In the municipalities of Nazareth, Elad and um al-Fahm, the percentage of workers who responded that they define the local authority as a place that is not safe or moderately safe was the highest.
Sexual harassment (illustration), photo: GettyImages
The follow-up audit shows that not all the authorities examined corrected the deficiencies mentioned in the previous report. Among other things, only 3 of the 12 authorities examined published the regulations for the prevention of sexual harassment on their website, 38 local authorities appointed a person responsible for preventing sexual harassment, out of the 43 authorities that the previous audit found did not appoint such a supervisor. It also emerged that in the 12 local authorities examined, only 18 complaints of sexual harassment were filed cumulatively since the end of the previous audit. The Comptroller's Office points out that the relative minority of complaints may stem from the victims' fear of complaining due to lack of awareness of the existence of a person responsible for preventing sexual harassment, lack of familiarity with the law, and lack of trust in the system that will handle the complaint.
The Ministry of Interior began to monitor
It also emerged that although in the previous audit the State Comptroller's Office recommended that the Ministry of the Interior formulate an action plan to combat sexual harassment in Arab local authorities as soon as possible, which would suit the characteristics of this society, this was not carried out. However, the comptroller notes positively the fact that the Ministry of Interior implemented the previous audit and began supervising the implementation of the Prevention of Sexual Harassment Law in local authorities, and even added standards and financial rewards to the local authorities that regulated the issue with them.
The Comptroller's main recommendations in the report focus on increasing employees' sense of protection from sexual harassment, and he recommends that local authorities take action to promote a work environment free of sexual harassment. The Ministry of the Interior, according to the recommendations, must continue to act to regulate the issue and ensure that local authorities have the appropriate tools to deal with the phenomenon and take steps to increase the workers' sense of protection. The report also recommends that the Ministry of the Interior, in coordination with the Ministry of Justice, publish guidelines for local authorities in the event that complaints are filed against senior officials in the local authority, and that the Ministry of the Interior, in cooperation with the Arab authorities, formulate an action plan to combat sexual harassment that will suit the unique characteristics of this society. The Comptroller's Office notes in the report that according to a survey by the Central Bureau of Statistics and the Ministry of National Security, in 2021 about 173,<> people experienced sexual harassment, and even recommends that all local authorities publish on their website the regulations for the prevention of sexual harassment and the contact details of the person responsible.
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