A third of United Nations employees have reported experiencing sexual harassment at the world body over the last two years, according to the findings of the first-ever survey on such misconduct released Tuesday.
One in three respondents, or 33 percent, reported at least one instance of sexual harassment in the past two years, but that figure climbed to 38.7 percent for those who reported some form of sexual harassment during their time at the United Nations.
The most common type of sexual harassment were sexual stories or jokes that were offensive, or offensive remarks about appearance, body or sexual activities. UN employees were also targeted for unwelcome attempts to draw them into discussion about sexual matters, offensive gestures and touching, according the survey carried out by Deloitte in November.
Two out of three harassers were men and one in four were supervisors or managers. Nearly one in 10 harassers were senior leaders, according to the survey. The survey had a moderately low response rate of 17 percent, with some 30,364 staff providing answers to a confidential questionnaire on line.