1.2-Meios de identificação, formas e modalidades-Roberta Negrão

[Music]

[Music]

Hello, my name is Roberta Negrão, I am a

Federal Prosecutor and a member of the program

to assist in the prevention and combating of

sexual harassment at the Federal Attorney General's Office. In

this module, I will be discussing

methods of identification,

delimitation, forms, and modalities of

sexual harassment. Our hope is that

after this module, you will be able to

identify whether a given conduct constitutes

sexual harassment for the purpose of applying the

appropriate disciplinary sanctions and understanding the

modalities of sexual harassment. Let's

begin by understanding how to identify

sexual harassment by recognizing its elements.

Sexual harassment is defined as the act of

coercing someone with the intention of

obtaining sexual advantage or favor, with the

objective of disturbing or creating an

intimidating, hostile, degrading,

humiliating, or destabilizing environment for the

victim. Sexual harassment is intentional,

meaning the harasser has the purpose or

objective of sexually coercing the harassed person. To

this end, they engage in conduct

of a sexual nature or content and are

characterized by the non-consent of the

harassed person. It is an

unwanted, disapproved, unpleasant, offensive, and

impertinent conduct, and beyond the victim's

refusal, they resist and

do not accept it. The conduct practiced by the

harasser—and note there's a difference

here—if the conduct is accepted and reciprocated,

we might be dealing with an act of

flirting, for example, but if it

's not accepted and there's resistance from the victim,

we're dealing with an intimidating act of a

sexual nature. And, unlike

moral harassment, sexual harassment is consummated even if it

occurs only once and even if the

sexual favors are not given by the

harassed person. Finally, it doesn't depend on

sex or sexual orientation; both the aggressor

and the victim can be

male or female, heterosexual,

homosexual, transgender, LGBT. Furthermore, when

faced with an act of sexual harassment, we

must always consider the context,

conduct, and intention, and analyze this act in

light of this delimitation, without forgetting the

evaluation of whether the

requirements of the

administrative infraction are met, that is, what is stated in the

articles of Law 8112 of 1990 that define

administrative infractions. This is because the practice of

sexual harassment, for the purposes of

disciplinary liability, must be

understood as any conduct of a

sexual nature manifested in the

exercise of a public office, employment, or function,

or by reason thereof. Therefore, we must

analyze and ask ourselves if the

behavior can be qualified as

adequate to the abstractly expected standard

of

Public Servants; whether the objective of the action sought the

conception of the public interest or the

private interest of the

agent; whether the author is

borrowing the formal attire of

public office to satisfy his

personal desires. Well, these are the questions we

have, and

now we will talk about forms of

inappropriate sexual conduct. Sexual harassment can

manifest itself in various ways; it

can be verbal, both explicitly and subtly,

or even disguised, through

unwanted conversations about sex,

telling jokes or using expressions

of sexual content,

verbal abuse or rude, humiliating,

embarrassing, or

sexist comments, offensive or double-

meaning phrases, indiscreet questions of a

sexual nature about the worker's private life.

Harassment can also be

non-verbal through acts and gestures of

sexual connotation, for example,

unwanted intimate physical contact of a sexual nature,

electronic messages

with requests for

sexual favors or sexual propositions made

with insistence, threats, or pressure, sending

images and videos of sexual content,

displaying

pornographic material, comments on

social networks, among many others. In all

these situations, it is important Highlighting that

physical contact is not a requirement for the

configuration of sexual harassment,

and the victim's silence cannot be

considered acceptance of the

sexual conduct, nor does it negate the harassment.

At this point, it is important to emphasize that

sexual harassment does not stem from the victim's conduct

but from the harasser's behavior,

which intentionally aims to

coerce someone to obtain

sexual favors, with the objective of

disturbing and creating an intimidating,

hostile, degrading, and humiliating environment that

destabilizes the

victim. In all cases, we have situations

with inappropriate and offensive sexual innuendos

that can be explicit or

veiled and that violate the victim's sexual freedom.

At this point, we emphasize that

any inappropriate sexual conduct must

be rejected from the

workplace. Now let's address the

types of

harassment. It can be vertical, occurring

when a man or woman in a

superior hierarchical position uses their

position of authority to coerce

someone with intimidation, pressure, or

other interference with the objective of

obtaining some sexual favor. This

type of sexual harassment is directly

linked to the abuse of power and

also includes the demand for

sexual favors by teachers in

relation to students. For example, this

classic form. Sexual harassment is a crime and is

covered under Article 216-A of the Brazilian Penal Code,

which considers

the conduct of coercing

someone with the intent of obtaining

sexual advantage or favor, taking advantage of one

's position of

hierarchical superiority or ascendancy inherent in the

exercise of employment, position, or

function, as a type of sexual harassment. However, sexual harassment can also

be horizontal, occurring when there is no

hierarchical distinction between the

harasser and the harassed. For example,

coercion between

colleagues is not a

crime of harassment under the Penal Code,

but it can be classified as the crime of

sexual molestation under Article

215-A, which covers the conduct of committing a lewd act

against someone without their consent

with the objective of satisfying one's

own or a

third party's desires. Although for penal purposes,

only cases involving hierarchy or

ascendancy are considered crimes of sexual harassment, for

disciplinary purposes, in cases

where the conduct is committed by a

public servant, both

vertical and horizontal modalities are considered

a very serious disciplinary transgression.

and which are punished

in the

administrative sphere. In both cases, once the

conduct is classified

as sexual harassment, the penalty applied should

be

dismissal. In this context, we need to

clarify that the understanding expressed in

paragraph 1 of 2023 of the Attorney General's Office (AGU), endorsed

by the Attorney General of the Union and approved

by the President of the Republic in September

2023, means that this opinion, having been

approved by the President of the

Republic, must be applied to all

bodies and entities of the

direct or indirect federal public administration.

Now, offensive conduct against

sexual dignity

practiced in the workplace or

related to the service is

punishable by

dismissal, provided it falls within the

terms of article

1179 combined with article 132, item 13

or item 5, all of the legal statute

of the Federal Public Servant, which is

Law

8112. In other words, in the disciplinary sphere,

sexual harassment is defined as

conduct of a sexual nature that uses

the position to obtain personal gain or gain for

another, to the detriment of the

dignity of the public function, resulting

in the application of the penalty of dismissal. Dismissal

for transgression of this conduct or for

public incontinence and

scandalous conduct in the

workplace. I emphasize that sexual harassment

is a very serious disciplinary offense,

and the

investigating committee and the judging authority

must assess whether the evidence in the

administrative process constitutes

sexual harassment. I reiterate that it

is a sexual conduct that can be

classified under the types foreseen in

article 117, paragraph 9, combined with 132,

paragraphs 13 or 5 of Law 8112 of 1990. Once again, if

the conduct is classified as

sexual harassment, there is no discretion to

apply a less severe penalty;

the penalty of dismissal must be applied.

With this, we come to the end of this

module. We hope you have

understood the elements of

sexual harassment and are able to identify whether a

given conduct is sexual harassment and

its modalities. I thank everyone

for their attention and indicate the

contact email for the program to

assist in the prevention and combat of

sexual harassment of the Federal Attorney General's Office (

PGF).

[Music]