Anti-corruption efforts generally overlook the specific impact of corruption on women. Whether it involved access to basic services (e.g., health, education), using state services (such as police, justice, or local administrations), or engaging with the private sector (e.g., seeking a loan or job), women often faced demands for compensation of various kinds, especially of a sexual nature. Factors such as ignorance of their rights, distrust in the judicial system, fear of stigma and reprisals, inadequate protection of whistleblowers, and the absence of secure reporting mechanisms that considered the specific forms of corruption affecting women exacerbated the issue.
Project Description and Objectives
Sexual corruption was defined as when a right or document, typically free of charge, was conditioned upon the granting of a sexual favor. While anyone, regardless of gender, could be a victim of such practices, women were disproportionately affected, as reported by the media.
In response, Transparency Morocco (TM), in partnership with the International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ), Transparency International (TI), and the Union of Women Judges of Morocco, launched a project titled “Impact of Corruption on Women,” which ran until the end of December 2019.
The project adopted a participatory approach, involving various stakeholders in its different phases. A key aspect of this approach was the prior organization of a conceptual debate on the different ways to describe the practice of sexual corruption.
The objectives of the project were to:
- Deepen the understanding of the specific forms of corruption to which women were victims, including sexual corruption;
- Create safe reporting mechanisms for women to report the corruption they experienced;
- Inform and raise awareness of women’s rights;
- Raise awareness in society about gender-related corruption.
Expected Results
- A significant increase in the denunciation of sexual corruption by women victims;
- Effective use of the judicial system to treat and punish corruption faced by women;
- Legal recognition of this phenomenon as a crime of corruption;
- Improved coordination and synergy between the different stakeholders.
