Anti-Sexual Harassment Bill still under review by MPs

(CNS): The Anti-Sexual Harassment Bill, which has gone through multiple rounds of public consultation and stakeholder review since Cabinet approved drafting instructions for the legislation in 2022, is still under review. The minister responsible for gender affairs, Katherine Ebanks-Wilks, has revealed that the bill was reconsidered by Caucus just a few months ago and members of the government have asked for changes to the proposed legislation.

The idea of introducing such a bill in Cayman stretches back more than fifteen years. But the issue of people, mostly but not always women, dealing with sexual harassment, bullying and unwanted attention continues as successive governments have dragged their heels in passing the legislation.

Former premier Wayne Panton, who steered the draft bill through almost a year of public consultation in 2023, asked why it hadn’t been approved by Cabinet.

In response, Ebanks-Wilks said the Gender Affairs Unit had been asked to review the proposed law. She said the bill had been considered by Caucus in April this year and requested the unit to “explore additional options for reporting and adjudicating sexual harassment cases”. Once the ministry has completed the requested task, the bill will be returned to Cabinet for consideration, she said.

However, since parliament will very probably be prorogued in February or March at the very latest, the legislation is unlikely to be brought before the General Election. The consultation period was already extended and the bill redrafted last year, so it’s not clear why the issues that concern the MPs in Caucus were not addressed then.

More than 300 people and organisations submitted comments and engaged in the consultation process last year, and Panton had said at the time that he was pleased with the level of support.

“It shows that our country expects the government to address sexual harassment in a robust and well thought out way,” he said at the time. “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.”

Nevertheless, the bill has been held up once again because the business community is challenging the provisions designed to protect all workers from inappropriate behaviour and harassment as they go about their work.