Amnesty International Ghana, a non-governmental organisation, has told JoyNews it intends to conduct research to establish the veracity of sexual harassment claims on university campuses.
The Coordinator for Campaign and Fundraising for the organisation, Samuel Agbotsey, said this will start in the year 2020 with trained student investigators(researchers).
“How many students out of thousand can report of an incident or have heard of a report or experienced sexual harassment from a lecturer?
“Then we will go to the lecturers and ask them ‘how many of you have experienced sexual harassment from a student and what form has it taken, is it by word, is it by the removal of your trouser or by unwanted kisses or whatever it is?”
He said this at the launch of “Orange Your Campus” initiative on Sunday as part of the International Day of Elimination of violence against women.
The BBC Africa Eye’s Sex For Grade documentary premiered in October implicated lecturers, including two from the University of Ghana, Legon.
A fact-finding committee set up to investigate the matter concluded that Professor Ransford Gyampo and Dr Paul Butakor breached the university’s Code of Conduct.
In a public statement, the university said the Committee, “chaired by Justice Vida Akoto-Bamfo, a retired Supreme Court Judge, noted in its report to the Vice-Chancellor that there is prima facie evidence of misconduct against Professor Gyampo and Dr Butakor contrary to Paragraph 6.4 of the Code of Conduct for Academic Staff of the University of Ghana, which stipulates that Academic Staff shall at all times comport themselves in ways that will enhance their image and that of the University.”
The committee, therefore, referred the two to the disciplinary committee of the university.