[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] The World Bank has been criticized for its lukewarm response to repeated allegations of habitual sexual harassment by a senior executive over several years, failing to properly protect female employees.
On the 18th (local time), The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported after obtaining a 56-page ruling issued by the World Bank Administrative Tribunal last June.
According to the report, the World Bank identified that Rodrigo Chavez, an executive from Costa Rica, sexually harassed at least six female employees between 2009 and 2013 but did not dismiss him, instead imposing only a demotion and a three-year salary freeze.
Prior to the Administrative Tribunal ruling, the World Bank Ethics Committee interviewed 30 witnesses and found that Chavez leered lasciviously at female employees, attempted to kiss them, made unwanted invitations to hotels or vacation spots, and commented on their appearances.
WSJ reported that two of the victims were women in their early twenties for whom the World Bank was their first workplace.
One female economist reported being deeply shocked by explicit sexual conversations during a lunch in mid-2009, which was arranged after persistent proposals from Chavez.
The victims officially raised the issue of Chavez’s sexual harassment in 2017 when the World Bank established a working group to address sexual harassment.
The Ethics Committee launched an investigation, but the ruling pointed out that no protective measures were taken for the victims until the investigation concluded at the end of 2019.
Chavez, who resigned from the World Bank voluntarily shortly after the demotion, previously served as Costa Rica’s Minister of Finance and is scheduled to run as a candidate for a center-left party in the presidential election next February.
The Administrative Tribunal ordered the World Bank not to rehire Chavez and to bar him from entering the World Bank premises.
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