Consultation extended on Sexual Harassment Bill
(CNS): More than fifteen years after local activists began the campaign for bespoke legislation to tackle the issue of sexual harassment, a stand-alone piece of legislation has been drafted to prevent this from happening. However, due to the level of response to a white paper that was published in March, this has been redrafted and the consultation period has been extended, which will include public meetings and a virtual town hall meeting next Tuesday.
According to a press release, during a month-long consultation period regarding the Sexual Harassment Bill, 2023, over 300 individuals and organisations responded. As a result, more meeting are scheduled and the consultation period has been extended another four weeks to discuss the proposed changes.
The bill aims to provide meaningful protection from sexual harassment and sets out requirements and duties for employers, institutions and associations.
Premier Wayne Panton, who has responsibility for gender affairs, said he was pleased with the level of engagement and support during the first round of public consultation.
“It shows that our country expects the government to address sexual harassment in a robust and well thought out way,” he said. “Our government recognises the scale and scope of this legislation and therefore felt it necessary to ensure that everyone had an opportunity to give feedback — particularly the business community who will be asked to ensure many of the provisions of the bill are upheld.”
Panton urged the public to acquaint themselves with the draft bill and the feedback shared so far by attending the district meetings or joining the proposed online meeting.
Read more about the bill here.
The in-person and virtual town hall meeting will be held in the George Town Public Library on Tuesday, 15 August, from 6:30 to 7:30pm.
Members of the public can attend in person or submit questions on CIGTV YouTube or CIG Facebook during the event.
Questions and feedback may also be submitted ahead of the Town Hall to genderequality@gov.ky
Watch on CIGTV or CIG Facebook (Logic channel 23, C3 channel 3, and Flow channel 106). Feedback will be collated, analysed and incorporated into the draft Sexual Harassment Bill for consideration by Cabinet and Gazetted in the fourth quarter of 2023.
District Meetings will be announced at a later date.
See Premier Wayne Panton host a round table on the bill on CIGTV below:
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
I guess Wayne being the only man at the table, means he has indebt knowledge of what it feels like to be sexually harassed. Wayne let some men who are groped and texted all hours of the night to have a say also!
Judging from the photo; it’s a shame that there were no other men seated at this round table.
I guess men don’t get sexually harassed or have a valid perspective to share on the matter.
Will McBeater and his full moon donkey be allowed to debate and vote on this?
Forget discussing the proposed bill. The bill, as initially proposed, does NOT “provide meaningful protection from sexual harassment”. Let me summate the 300 pieces of feedback: pull this draft and return with something that does the job (has actual legal penalties and enforceability). And, whatever you do, don’t have a Town Hall Meeting to try to convince us that the bill as drafted is going to be effective. Thats not going to go over well.
The current draft of the bill appears to substantially address sexual harassment in situations involving employer/employee, institutions of learning, associations, etc. What was not clear to me after reading the bill three times, was whether provisions are included that specifically address sexual harassment in public places. While “public place” is included in the definition of a “place” in bill, public places do not appear to be included in the “commission of an act of sexual harassment”, which includes behaviors that offend, humiliate, disrespect or degrade, intimidate, threaten, create a hostile environment for the person alleging sexual harassment, or violates their dignity. What about the unwanted, unsolicited acts that occur in public places, such as catcalling, which can be aggressive? Am I missing something or was this type of harassment simply not included?
You are correct. Harassment where they can’t just ‘work it out’ is not included. A failure of the bill.
We wold have to ban Batabano and Caymas if you want meaningful legislation to be passed
This should leave to firing of most of the top echelon of government Go for it Wayne we desperately need change at the top because the fight against corruption ain’t saying bounce!
Oh yeah, some questionable movements and promotions indeed.