Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Banja Luka and the Citizens’ Association Future Modriča organized today, November 29, 2023, a street action in Modriča, whereas we introduced citizens with the campaign “Sexual Extortion is Corruption. Let’s Break the Silence!”, but also with this phenomenon, which until now has been largely silent, and as research has shown, it happens in all spheres of society.
We shared promotional material, but also information about the concept of sexual extortion, as well as the goals of the campaign.
Our goal is to raise citizens’ awareness on the importance of recognizing and reporting sexual extortion, as well as advocating the integration of the concept of sexual extortion into legal policies and anti-corruption strategies.
Sexual extortion is a combination of sexual harassment and corruption, that is, a gender-specific form of corruption, which is still not formally and legally recognized in the laws of BiH.
Citizens showed interest in this campaign, and pointed out that sexual extortion happens in both the public and private sectors, only that it is kept silent about it, that is, it is not reported, for several reasons.
“It is time to talk about it, because sexual extortion is completely unacceptable, especially if someone uses the position of boss, director, professor…” said one citizen of Modriča.
In the conversation during the street action, some citizens mentioned that it should be careful with possible false reporting of sexual extortion.
In addition to Modriča, street actions have already been held in Sarajevo, Bijeljina, Banja Luka and Zenica, and are planned in several other cities throughout BiH.
This activity is implemented within the project “Citizens in the Fight against Silent Corruption” supported by CCI and USAID.
