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Democrats introduce legislation to strengthen anti-sexual harassment/ assault protocols at State Department

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Senior Fellow Zachary D. Kaufman‘s proposed language was incorporated into SHAPE, the Sexual Harassment and Assault Prevention and Eradication Act. This act, which was introduced by three Democrats in Congress, aims to address sexual harassment and assault in the State Department. In 2017, over 200 women in the State Department came forward about sexual harassment and assault in their work. The existing protocols were deemed inadequate by a report by the US Commission on Civil Rights in April 2020, helping to prompt Congressional involvement in this issue.

Zachary’s work on bystanders and upstanders provided language that was used in Section 8 of the legislation. His work on this subject can be found in various publications:

  • “The Law and Politics of Bystanders and Upstanders” –forthcoming with Cambridge University Press
  • “Digital Age Samaritans”– forthcoming in the Boston College Law Review
  • “Protectors of Predator or Prey: Bystanders and Upstanders  amid Sexual Crimes”– published in the Southern California Law Review, available here
  • “What Makes People Save Lives? Learning from Upstanders and Bystanders” – published in the New York Daily News, available here
  • “No Cover for Abusers; California Must Close Gap in its Duty-to-Report Law” — published in the San Francisco Chronicle, available here
  • “When Sexual Abuse is Common Knowledge – But Nobody Speaks Up” — published in the Boston Globe, available here
  • “Give the Nobel Peace Prize Posthumously” — published by Foreign Policy magazine, available here
  • “Islam is (Also) a Religion of Peace” — published by Foreign Policy magazine, available here

Read more about SHAPE in this CNN article.