Mexican officials should refrain from kissing and hugging or throwing compliments “suggestive or sexual in nature,” according to the Code of Ethics published Tuesday to combat corruption and harassment in the public administration.
The regulation, published in the Official Gazette of the Federation, urges to “avoid behaviors such as (…) having suggestive physical contact or of a sexual nature, such as touching, hugging, kissing, groping, pulling.”
It also warns against “comments, teasing, compliments or jokes towards another person regarding appearance or anatomy with sexual connotation, either in person” or through electronic means.
This seeks to combat acts of corruption and abuses against personnel of all genders, the text says.
The code further defines situations such as sexual harassment, in which there is not necessarily hierarchical subordination, and sexual harassment, in which there is abuse by a superior.
Read: Conacyt rules out limiting freedom of expression in code of ethics that asks not to criticize the institution
In addition, it will be sanctioned to make gifts or statements that denote a sexual interest towards a person or insinuate appointments or encounters with the same purpose.
The Code of Ethics of the federal public administration obliges public servants to preserve the institutional image even outside hours and work space “must act with integrity.”
Considering that social networks can constitute an extension of people in electronic media, officials must maintain a behavior “in accordance with public ethics and respectful of any person, regardless of their ideology or positioning.”
It adds that, in the event that public servants decide to use their social networks to make public the activities related to their employment, “they will refrain from conduct that restricts or blocks the advertising or interaction of the account to certain people.”
The code also states that civil servants must refuse all types of gifts, compensation, benefits, gifts, services or the like for the exercise of their function, which benefit their person or their relatives up to the fourth degree by consanguinity or affinity.
Failure to comply with this regulation, which will enter into force on Wednesday, must be reported to ethics committees and internal control bodies of Mexican agencies.
Officials shall be punished in accordance with the law on administrative responsibilities.
This code is launched at a time when demonstrations are multiplying among women demanding an end to sexual harassment and gender-based violence.
Hand in hand with the violence of organized crime, which has hit Mexico for 15 years, attacks against women have multiplied with an average of 10 murders each day, according to official figures.
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