By TINA TIMOTHY, Lagos

One out of every three female lawyers get abused or sexually harassed in the workplace.

This is according to the United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leonard.

She gave the startling statistics on Friday, November 26, in a video message to the launch event in Lagos to unveil the new global Safety in the Workplace initiative of the African Women on Board (AWB).

Condemning the ugly trend, Ambassador Mary Beth Leonard described the fight against Gender-Based Violence as a global one.

She made it clear that “women have the same right to exist in the work place as men do and while there, they need to be safe.”

The US Ambassador thanked the AWB for the initiative, even as she thanked all the participants for attending.

Staged in partnership with the Faculty of Law of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Association of Company Secretaries and Legal Advisers (ACSLA), and leading Law firms and private sector organisations, the vent featured a number of high-profile speakers from the worlds of business, law and politics. They included Prof. Ayo Atsenuwa – DVC UNILAG, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe – Chairman, MTN Nigeria, and Mr. Asue Ighodalo – Chairman, Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG).

AWB, a Nigerian-founded global non-profit organization, is dedicated to advancing the cause of African and Diaspora women around the world. The organisation’s new programme, Safety in the [Legal] Workplace, has been designed to facilitate systems change directly on the ground.