Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Greenpeace India has admitted a failure to create a “gender sensitive environment”, in the wake of allegations of serious sexual misconduct, including the alleged rape of a female Greenpeace staff member.
According to The Guardian;
The environmental group, which is already embroiled in a legal battle with the government over questions on its funding, said an internal review found lapses in how it dealt with crimes against women and gender sensitivity in the workplace.
“Greenpeace India treats issues of sexual harassment and violence seriously – and these recent allegations have shown that we need to strengthen our internal processes and our sensitivity training for staff and management,” the group said in a statement late on Tuesday.
“We are committed to a safe and equal workplace for all our staff, where people are free to work and live without harassment of any kind. As an organisation we haven’t done enough to create a shared culture of respect and sensitivity.”
The reference to a legal battle over funding probably refers to a recent government ban on Greenpeace India receiving overseas funds. The Indian government last year labelled Greenpeace India a threat to economic security.
This is the second serious sexual misconduct scandal this year to affect the Indian green movement. In February, Rajendra Pachauri resigned as chairman of the IPCC, after being accused of sexual harassment.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Have I missed something or was this once a science website?
“Greenpeace India treats issues of sexual harassment and violence seriously – and these recent allegations have shown that we need to strengthen our internal processes and our sensitivity training for staff and management,”
Well I do hope they have imposed “sensitivity training ” on that rapist. Such a robust defence of the less powerful is so admirable, I wonder how they really treat those even less powerful, such as animals.
@Simon I agree. I don’t think there is anything to be concluded because of the allegations with respect to the organization as a whole. Greenpeace does not have a policy of rape for its female supporters. They do, however, have a complete disregard for law and certainly do support objectives that followed to their conclusion, will result in genocide on an unheard of scale. I’m interested in the Indian government’s prying in to the funding from outside India and whether this is preparation for some kind of claim of foreign funded sedition. Now that would be a big deal and a conversation well beyond piquing everyone’s prurient blather on the definition of rape and what it means about the political worldview of everyone who knew or should have known about what might have happened.
While I would not be at all surprised given the nature of neo-Marxist activists, whether old hippies or younger people, there are false allegations around – I hope India has a good justice system.
A problem with neo-Marxist activists, which most eco-activists are, is they don’t know how to judge people.
Recall that the Occupy mob in at least one city (NYC or Vancouver BC) had to establish its own security detail because of crimes including rape. (The fool organizers couldn’t bring themselves to call city police.)