- By Murk Naz
- Karachi
Every year, numerous cases of sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment are reported across the country. This raises an important question: How many more lives must be shattered before effective action is taken to prevent these crimes. Every reported case of sexual abuse, rape, or harassment is failure of society to protect the dignity, safety and fundamental rights of its people.
Sexual Exploitation refers to taking advantage of someone by misusing trust, vulnerability, or their weaker position for personal benefits. Sexual Abuse is any sexual activity, rape, threat, or contact that happens without persons consent. Sexual Harassment is defined as any unwanted behaviour, comment, or gesture that creates discomfort and hostile environment.
Sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment (SEAH) is a form of gender-based violence driven by gender inequality, unequal power relations, and harmful social norms. Although anyone can become a victim of SEAH, women and girls are most often affected. Harmful cultural norms like child marriage, lack of education, child labor, disability, conflicts, dominance over the weaker person to report abuse, increases vulnerability. In workplaces and institutions, weak safety measures and poor reporting systems make it easier for offenders to escape punishment. As a result, many survivors remain silent because they fear being blamed, ignored, doubted, or excluded by society. This leads to severe physical, emotional, and psychological impacts on survivors. It can result in trauma, loss of confidence, anxiety, and long-term mental health issues, while also affecting their education, work, and overall wellbeing.
Preventing sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment requires more than just stronger laws. Governments must enforce justice and ensure that offenders are held accountable for their actions. Organizations should have strong policies to prevent abuse, safe and confidential ways to report it, regular staff training and services that provide support to survivors. Schools should teach children and young people the importance of equality, respect, consent, personal boundaries and healthy relationships from an early age.
However, preventing SEAH is not the responsibility of governments alone. It is a shared responsibility that requires every individual, the government, organizations, families, religious leaders, educators, employers and the media to play their role. By challenging harmful beliefs, treating everyone with respect, supporting survivors without judgment, and speaking out against abuse, we can help create safer workplaces, schools, and communities for everyone, because every person has the right to live, learn and work in an environment free from fear, exploitation, abuse and harassment.
In conclusion, preventing SEAH requires collective action and strong commitment from all sectors of society.
As Dr. Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women, states, “Ending violence against women and girls requires courage, commitment, and collective action. Advancing gender equality is how we build a more equal, safer world for everyone, where every woman and every girl can live a life free from violence.”
This highlights the importance of shared responsibility in ending Sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment.