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CALLIOPE SPANOU (Ombudsman of Greece)
First of all about violence, the Greek Ombudsman does not have this
competent about violence against woman there are other agencies, it is
a general secretariat for gender equality. So, we do not have the power
to intervene to deal with these issues. So, I can’t give you a rate, the
number of complaints. But the general problem of hesitating to come
forward and complain especially when it has to do with harassment
maybe a little bit similar to that, for such issues is a common problem,
often women feel that they are further and worse exposed when they
complain about it and this is a major obstacle. Unfortunately this does
not allow the public bodies to intervene in order to at least solve the
problem, show the way in some way, and give the sign that this is not
tolerated in a modern society.

Now, concerning harassment cases, the Greek ombudsman can
intervene in issues of harassment at work place, not any kind until the
first hearing in the court. So, even if the complainant wants to go to
court we can still try to find a solution. Now, what can be a solution in
these cases? It can be that one party apologies to the other and they are
reconciled and that is over for both. It can be also that if there is enough
evidence of course then the ombudsman can propose a fine which is
then imposed by the labor inspectorate because the ombudsman does
not have the competence to sanction. Okay? It is a little bit the issue 3 rd INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON OMBUDSMAN INSTITUTIONS
mentioned by our colleagues. So, the other concern the courts, yes
sometimes despite our intervention and our effort to find a solution
of any kind we see that these cases continue to court. The difficulty is
that when there is not sufficient evidence then one considers the action
of others as and then there is a whole number of court cases that
open beyond the main issue of harassment. So, we had such cases,
these are difficult cases and where we need to be very careful is not to
give the impression to women for example that once they come to us
everything is easy and everything is solved because it has happened
that some woman have felt that “the ombudsman is behind me” and
then they continued in a very aggressive way to press their case and it
backfired. So, it is extremely sensitive to find the right balance between
intervening, supporting and trying to solve the case but not make things
worse. I can tell you this balance is often very delicate.
Thank you.

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