KUCHING: Sarawak Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development fully support the tabling of the Sexual Harassment Bill, which will not only seek to further protect women but also men.
Minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah said the law was timely as sexual harassment in workplace was still an area of concern.
“While there is an improvement in terms of reporting of rape and domestic violence, sexual harassment in workplace in still under reported,” she told New Sarawak Tribune yesterday.
She said it was under reported, especially if there was a risk of losing one’s job or the perpetrator was of high social standing.
“In the country, there is Code of Practice on the Prevention and Eradication of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace introduced by the Ministry of Human Resource in August 1999 to deal with sexual harassment in workplace,” she said.
Citing the Code of Practice, Fatimah said under Article 4, it defined sexual harassment as any unwanted sexual behaviour and impacts which included verbal, non-verbal, visual, psychological or physically.
Meanwhile, Sarawak Women for Women Society (SWWS) president Margaret Bedus too applauded the federal government’s move in introducing the law on sexual harassment.
“SWWS has been part of the joint action group that is pushing for the Sexual Harassment Bill,” she said.
She said sexual harassment not only affected women but men as well, but statistics showed that there were more female victims.
“There are many factors of victims not reporting sexual harassment, first is victims do not know their rights, the organisation has no code of practice in place and no standard operating procedure for reporting the incident,” she said.
Which was why, Margaret said, it was important that the Sexual Harassment Bill be passed to protect the victims.
“If not, the abuse of power will continue and more victims will be affected,” she said.
On Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said the Sexual Harassment Bill was aimed at protecting women’s rights and the Bill would also be applicable to men.
She said the Bill was expected to be tabled in Parliament in March.
