NGOs: Set up special sex harassment tribunal

PETALING JAYA: A special tribunal to deal with sexual harassment cases should be set up, say women NGOs.

This is to remove barriers for women in reporting instances of sexual harassment, said Young Women Making Change representative Kamilia Khairul Anuar.

The NGO is assisting Joint Action Group for Gender Equality (JAG) on the proposed draft of the Sexual Harassment Bill.

“The idea of the Bill is to make it as easy as possible for the victim to report, so we thought of funnelling sexual harassment cases through a tribunal.

“In a lot of cases, especially when the victim knows the perpetrator, it makes things more difficult for the victim when there’s a criminal sanction in place,” she said.

The tribunal, she said, would be similar to the Industrial Court.

She said in this way, victims would not find it nearly as expensive or time-consuming as going through a traditional court system.

“The thing about criminal law is that the burden of proof is higher as it has to be beyond reasonable doubt.

“For civil cases, it’s on the balance of probabilities, so that means you produce enough evidence to convince the person hearing your case that there’s a more than 50% chance that this person sexually harassed you.

“It’s not just about having the heaviest punishment to make sure (sexual harassment) won’t happen. If you just have heavy penalties and do nothing to facilitate reporting and actual resolution, the end result is that people just won’t report,” she said.

The Bill, she said, should also obligate employers to have a sexual harassment policy in place.

She said the current Code of Practice on the Prevention and Eradication of Sexual Harassment by the Human Resources Ministry was not binding.

Kamilia said the Bill must be broad to cover wider instances of sexual harassment.

“The existing legislation dealing with sexual harassment includes the Employment Act, which doesn’t cover certain groups such as interns, volunteers and stateless people.

“It doesn’t cover you if you have been sexually harassed in public transport or walking around in the mall. It’s very much specific to only the workplace context,” she said.

Despite its breadth, she said the Bill would also deal with false complaints of sexual harassment.

“If you are found to have falsely accused someone, it is an offence,” she said.