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Organisations have a duty of care to prevent and respond to incidents of safeguarding concerns, including SEAH, against their staff.

Sexual or other forms of misconduct on staff and organisational representatives in the course of their work is a growing concern for organisations, and they need to be prepared for disclosures and how to manage them. If not managed well, disclosures of safeguarding concerns can be hugely distressing to survivors and create long-term problems for them.

When exercising an organisational duty of care, organisations should think about the following:

• Are there prevention measures, policies, and procedures in place to address different forms of safeguarding concerns?
• Are staff members in various roles appropriately trained? Are those expected to interact with survivors comfortable doing so?
• Does the organisational culture support staff in reporting incidents of sexual violence?
• Is the organisation conducting transparent, professional, and impartial investigative or inquiry processes?
• Do staff members at all levels of the organisation understand their rights and obligations to the creation and maintenance of a safe and healthy workplace and living environment (often known as a ‘safeguarding culture’)?

These questions are taken from Duty of Care: Protection of Humanitarian Aid Workers from Sexual Violence. If you want to learn more about duty of care download and read the rest of this report.

Example of good practice

The Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA) is a membership organisation based in the UK with 350 members in 100 countries. It supports organisations such as BSMMU in Dhaka in Bangladesh, which provides palliative care to older and disabled clients in their homes.

Providing palliative care in a client’s home is a relatively new concept in Bangladesh, and it is becoming increasingly popular with young women, who view this as a noble profession, as it falls in line with their cultural values of respecting and caring for older people.

View transcript

Watch the video above, in which Lailatul, the head nurse at a medical hospital in Dhaka, explains the importance of safeguarding her staff (the palliative care assistants) by implementing the ‘two-adult rule’ when they travel long distances and/or work alone.

To learn more, you can follow up with these readings:

• Times Up on Violence and Sexual Harassment against Women in Health Care Professions.
• ILO Convention no.190 on Violence and Harassment.
• ChildHope UK (2021) Sapana, Asha, and Saya’s stories of inspiration, courage and survival.