Street action on the occasion of the campaign “Sexual Extortion is Corruption. Let’s Break the Silence!” was held today, February 23, in Tuzla, and was organized by the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Banja Luka in cooperation with the Civil Movement “Buđenje”.
The goal of this street action was to introduce the citizens of Tuzla with the term sexual extortion/blackmail in the public and private sector, and efforts to incorporate sexual extortion into legislative policies.
The citizens of Tuzla with whom we spoke today are generally of the opinion that any type of corrupt behavior is reprehensible and socially unacceptable, and that it is finally time to talk about corruption in which sexual favors are sought by those in a certain position of power.
“If I knew that this was happening to someone of mine, I would advise them to report it. The same goes for corruption for money or for sex, every kind of corruption is terrible and must not be allowed, it must be stopped,” said one of the citizens of Tuzla.
Sexual extortion (sextortion) is a combination of sexual harassment and corruption, that is, a gender-specific form of corruption, which as such is still not formally – legally recognized in the laws of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is important to point out that sexual extortion is a combination of sexual harassment and abuse of entrusted power (corruption).
Instead of money in this type of corruption, sex is used as currency. So, on the one hand, we have those entrusted with control (power, authority), and on the other, often vulnerable categories that are usually in a subordinate position.
We also informed the citizens about the results of the new “Research on the Prevalence of Sexual Extortion in Society“, as well as the “Analysis of Regulations Regarding Sexual Extortion”.
It is necessary to continue to work on strengthening awareness of the existence and prevalence of sexual extortion as socially unacceptable behavior, which is one of the goals of these street actions.
Also, it is necessary to motivate the creators of public policies in order to reform the existing laws, all with the aim of having sexual extortion regulated in an appropriate manner.
We remind you that we have already organized street actions in Sarajevo, Bijeljina, Banja Luka, Zenica and Modriča.
This activity is implemented within the project “Citizens in the Fight against Silent Corruption”, supported by CCI and USAID.
