Consultation begins on Sexual Harassment Bill
(CNS): The Cayman Islands Government has unveiled the Sexual Harassment Bill, 2023, more than fifteen years after local activists began the campaign for such legislation and government formed a task force to examine the issue. The draft law has been published as a white paper and is open for public consultation until 15 April. This will allow time for people to weigh in on how this offence, which can be difficult to bring to charges, can be dealt with in the workplace, school, public institutions and associations across society at large.
Premier Wayne Panton presented the bill at a private lunch function held by the Business and Professional Women’s Club, one of the organisations that has been involved in the very long road to getting the much-needed legislation.
Just last month, police received three reports from different women alleging they had been harassed by a man kerb-crawling and asking for sexual favours in exchange for cash. Even though the man drove off when the women refused and no one was physically hurt, it remains a frightening experience for the victims and a difficult offence for police to properly prosecute under the current laws.
Panton, who also has responsibility for gender affairs, said the government had worked through several versions of a Sexual Harassment Bill, which is designed to prevent, deter and hold individuals accountable for sexual harassment offences.
“This bill seeks to provide individuals with protection from sexual harassment and sets out requirements and duties for employers, institutions and associations,” he said. “I recognise that the scale and scope of this legislation warrants an extensive period of public consultation to allow sufficient time for people to familiarise themselves with the proposed bill and provide feedback,” Panton stated in a press release. “The government seeks the public’s input on how to adopt a robust framework and operationalise it in a way that reflects fair and balanced governance.”
The public consultation process seeks to ensure a high level of awareness and understanding of the rationale and aim of the legislation amongst the general public and the relevant entities. The Gender Affairs Unit, which comes under the Cabinet Office, will coordinate the stakeholder engagement and the feedback processes through methods such as face-to-face meetings and presentations. Feedback will be used to improve and clarify concepts, procedures or provisions of the bill.
Existing legislation does not cover the full scope of issues that fall under sexual harassment or stalking, and officials said it would help fill a gap towards a global and local societal movement. When it becomes law it will help victims and ensure perpetrators are held accountable. The aim is to help prevent instances of sexual harassment in a number of settings, as well as to introduce a process to make a sexual harassment complaint, as well as to to provide legal remedies and relief in such cases.
Members of the public can submit their comments for consideration before 15 April 2023 via email to genderequality@gov.ky (with the subject heading: Sexual Harassment Bill Public Consultation 2023) or by completing the Survey on the Public Consultation Hub. At the end of the consultation period, feedback will be collated, analysed and incorporated into the draft bill for consideration by Cabinet and Gazettal at a later date.
See the CIG webpage on the Sexual Harassment Bill, which includes a link to the survey.
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I hope men are afforded equal protection under this law. I cannot tell you how often I have been harassed in the work place and outside and these women think it’s funny or cute but really it’s disgusting and shows the degeneration of society at large. Insanity.
Yep, it works both ways, women are often worst and more overt in their actions. Tell them to also dress professionally, and not like they are going to a party.
Sexual harassment up against Caymanian and Jamaican culture norms. Ask Bush how long this will take to make a change.
Jamaicans are going to get convicted of harassment because of how direct their flirting styles are.
as they, and anyone else that make unfavored and unwanted remarks, should
sexual harassment is just another day at the office in the Cayman Islands
Pretty rich coming from a guy who accepted this fella with open arms just so he could form a government, then appointed him speaker.
https://igaming.org/casino-news/mckeeva-bush-arrested-at-seminole-casino-coconut-creek-florida-for-touch-or-strikebattery-1237/
This was the report right after the 2017 election, when Mac B was appointed Speaker with Alden’s PPM-led Unity Government, and Mac was said to place an unwanted touch on a waitress in a Florida casino. This actually has nothing to do with Wayne and the PACT.
Bullshit. The single reason PACT even exists is because the Progressives members who were re-elected refused to again work with Mac. Wayne destroyed his own legacy and welcomed him just to take power.
Not saying that PPM shouldn’t have removed Mac prior but these are the facts.
Are you sure? Wayne and PACT were around for 25 years of this stuff, plus XXX – and still allowed him to continue in Speaker’s Chair to hold their slim power majority. Bad as that may be, since then, no bills have been sponsored to the house by PACT (or PPM/CDP/UDP) to remodel the quality and standard of who might be eligible to stand for, or remain in a Parliamentary seat. Caymanian voters haven’t petitioned for it either.
CNS: Sorry! The XXX is because of breaking news.
Both Alden and Wayne made a deal with Mac (to be Speaker) in order to gain power and become Premier.
Alden is power hungry. Wayne seems is hungry, power hungry and hypocritical.
Mac played both Alden and Wayne but Mac really played Wayne like a fiddle.
And yet Wayne is the ONLY one who has done ANYTHING about ANY of these issues! Who are the real hypocrites?!
Excuse me but no means no! As a good looking male I’ve had enough of these obese unattractive women and gay men harassing me. Trying to pinch my fine firm buttock and asking me to a Magic Mike performance on their birthday with the Backstreet Boys I want It That Way song playing. Serenity now!
As long as your culture is based on the story that Eve was created for the pleasure of Adam, out of his rib, to further stress the importance of man, you will have women suffering from male harassment.
Any religion is an obstacle for developing a culture into a society where everyone is treated equal.
So. Get rid of this stupid ancient belief system, close the churches and burn the books, and most of your problems will be solved.
Yes let’s take away the freedom of religious belief forcefully and while we are at it, take away some of those other pesky freedoms that interfere with your idiotic ideology.
Ah yes, book burning. Hitler did this too, didn’t work too well for him.
I was sexually harassed by female staff (one was my boss) at Faith Hospital – yet Senior Management did not take me seriously and did nothing to the female staff.
So this kind of crap just does not happen to women, like it does not happen to men.
My boss is a gay male and I am a straight male. Are his comments about what he would like to do me sexually, sexual harassment? Or is this only for women?
Yes
Depends if these are actual vocalized comments, or your wild imaginations. Have you said no? Vexatious claim = KYD$10,000 for anyone.
There is only a law against insulting the modesty of a woman, not men
Comical to say the least. For every ‘modest woman’ in todays society I can show you 100 that are not. The promotion of the degeneration of woman and loss of men’s rights is a joke. Feminism has sold women a lie. Actions and choices have consequences and there will be a lot of single mothers and childless women from this generation due to lack of morality. Hopefully things will turn around and the next generation will bring back some morality.
Preach on brother. Amen.
what a dirty flamer your boss is.
Your boss deserves to lose his job and go to jail, however, it’s sounds as if he might enjoy being there.
Retaining your job, while being hit on by another man, is not a job worth keeping.
Ignorant much?
Yes they are. Why do you need to ask that question? Obviously that would be
Refer to the law of insulting the modesty of a woman. It is not obvious at all, while this law is ONLY for women.
So many top officials in the private sector but especially in the public sector at the highest levels of the CS and SAGC’s plus elected officials past and present will be bricking themselves because they cannot change and only know one way to behave.
How many persons have been propositioned for promotions in this country?
How many “on duty” police officers have circled back to the private homes of female victims and witnesses to proposition them?
Is it this Wayne Panton that’s in charge of this or a different one? Asking for a friend.
https://caymannewsservice.com/2020/03/panton-finally-quits-ppm/
I think this falls under Wayne’s remit. I don’t think Wayne is a good leader or even a smart man, but I do believe he respects women (as well as other vulnerable groups) and would be trying to help in this regard.
The 15 year task force must have been compromised of the usual all-male cabal. Victims get only 18 months to report a lifetime of assorted abuse, with he-said/she-said “evidence” to Tribunal, and face the coin toss $10,000 vexatious claim decision for their troubles.
For every single case of real harassment, there will be ten spurious harassment claims filed. This is just ridiculous. There are serious problems to deal with like building roads, rather than giving people opportunities to vent their frustrations.
The Tribunal should not assume that anyone willing to go to the trouble of reporting an incident, or pattern of abuse, has spurious intentions. Max claim is capped at only $20k. Nobody is retiring on that, and the penalty for making things up is $10k.
But, if this legislation were to protect your daughter, I doubt you would feel the same.
Is she supported though Wayne? Is she really?
Wayne can confidently say rainbow 🌈 flags are supported.
I reported harassment, which included sexual harassment, and lost my job as a result.
How will this bill provide for any remedy to those types of situations?
$20k max
If you worked in a toxic environment, it my be best to get away from it. If, however, you encountered that situation, hopefully there will be serious consequences for the violator.
“…more than fifteen years after local activists began the campaign for such legislation and government formed a task force”
Don’t forget ‘feedback will be collated, analysed and incorporated into the draft bill for consideration by Cabinet and Gazettal at a later date’. A later date means anytime in the future.
…and the law commenced after another notice period. Ffs
Have you ever seen it get this far? Be grateful it is ion the way FFS!
Frequently Asked Questions:
Does the proposed Bill apply to “Street or Public” Harassment?
No.
Public Feedback is via responses to their questions on SurveyMonkey. Not a true suggestion box.
what’s wrong with being sexy?
I’m bringing it back.
Being ‘sexy’ is fine, so long as you don’t scream harassment if you INVITE attention as a result.
Unless that “attention” amounts to harassment.
return to 10am
In a nutshell, this legislation is going to require that people are more guarded about appropriate social interactions.
Those deliberately seeking to draw attention to themselves are sexually harassing me
Like flamboyant dressed flamers 🔥?
How about government-backed harassment? Didn’t they apply millions of our dollars in legal horsepower against our own citizens on the basis of their born sexuality and civil rights – suing them all the way to the Privy Council? Did they ask our permission to do that? Surely that’s some next level targeted sexual harassment where there are excellent records on the full sponsor names, their correspondence, etc…
Long overdue. Now get it Gezetted and get on with it. People, when you make these obligations against others, make sure you hold all the evidence in hand, people have a way of snaking out of it.