0.80. However, with regard to education, gender inequality increases as and when men and women progress in the educational ladder. Thus, there are fewer and fewer women in higher education as compared to men, particularly because of the sexual harassment of girls. 169. Even after studies, the ordeals of women are still not over because this bad practice is also very common at the workplace where recruitment, promotion and other social benefits are sometimes conditioned by the request of sexual favours from women by corporate heads or managers. All these increase the women’s risk of contracting HIV/AIDS or other STDs. Several African countries are confronted with this problem which complicates women’s access to education, training and employment. 170. For the public authorities, such practices can neither be condoned nor tolerated even though women still cannot publicly denounce their perpetrators. Thus, the DRC Government has ratified the Beijing Document as well as the 1993 Vienna Declaration relating to violence against women and has also adopted provisions to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace, in schools and other places. 171. In that respect, Articles 73 and 74 of the Labour Code are labelled as follows:, “ The employer shall be guilty of a gross misconduct which allows the worker to terminate the contract when the employer seriously fails to fulfil the obligations of the contract, especially in the case where the employer is guilty of dishonesty, sexual or moral harassment, intimidation, wrongdoing, gross misconduct or tolerance on the part of other workers of similar acts ......”;“The worker shall be guilty of gross misconduct which allows the employer to terminate the contract when the worker fails to fulfil the provisions of the contract, especially in the case where the worker is guilty of dishonesty, sexual or moral harassment, intimidation, physical assault and serious insults to the employer or his staff” 172. The laws of 2006 on sexual violence also punish sexual harassment as an offence as defined by this new criminal code.  Domestic violence (Article 4(2) (a) 173. Apart from the sexual violence in the country, especially due to war and armed conflicts, particularly in the Eastern part of the country, there is also domestic violence perpetrated in the households against women and children. Domestic violence includes physical, verbal and psychological violence. Studies have shown that women and children in the DRC experience all these forms of domestic violence ranging from verbal violence ( insults , humiliation) to real physical trauma (sprains, dislocations, burns, injuries, fractures, broken teeth, etc.. ), including economic, legal and emotional violence. Generally speaking, it is physical violence that is more common as compared to other forms of violence as shown in Table No. 12. 174. Nearly all men in the DRC, even the most educated do not approve of gender equality and still hold on to stereotypes. Likewise, women have accepted most of the social norms that support their position as inferior compared to men. Yet, it is precisely such attitudes which influence the occurrence of most violent actions against women. The findings of the 2007 DHS survey have shown that more than three quarters of women (76%) think it is justifiable for a man to beat his wife if she argues with him, burns his food, abandons the children, goes out without telling him, or refuses to have sex with him. Such an opinion is to some extent supported and backed by the church which recommends that women should obey and submit to the husband who is the family head. It is rare to see a woman who has sued the husband for violence, yet these exist in many families. 175. From a legal point of view, no specific law had been passed or promulgated until then to curb domestic violence. These are considered as common law offences punishable by the Congolese Criminal Code. But in view of the extent of these acts of violence and the fact that they have been trivialized by the relevant bodies, the Government is planning to pass a special law on this aspect. Indeed domestic violence which, for a long time, has been regarded as a private matter within the family is nowadays regarded as a serious human right violation that must be punished 39