Sexual Harassment Bill to be retabled next week

The report of the Joint Select Committee reviewing the Sexual Harassment Bill is to be tabled in the House of Representatives, along with a raft of amendments, on June 8, the same day Gender Affairs Minister Olivia Grange is scheduled to make her contribution to the Sectoral Debate.

After extensive deliberations, the committee completed the task of reviewing the bill yesterday.

Grange had told committee members that she was pushing to have the bill debated in the House of Representatives in June.

After the tabling of the report of the committee, Grange said that debate should follow in a matter of days.

“And we will take the legislation through all its stages and pass it and then it will go on to the Senate,” she said.

The gender affairs minister said that her ministry was also making every effort to complete the regulations in short order.

The far-reaching proposed statute contains provisions for dealing with sexual harassment in the workplace, schools, correctional institutions, places of safety, nursing homes, medical and psychiatric facilities, among other places.

The bill was first tabled on October 16, 2019 by Grange. Following its tabling, a joint select committee was established to consider and receive submissions from various groups and members of the public. The committee had its first meeting on November 28, 2019, and held five other meetings before the September 3, 2020 general election.

Following the massive win by the governing Jamaica Labour Party, a new committee was appointed in October 2020 and held its first meeting on November 12 the same year. This latter committee had 18 meetings.

Grange told her colleague lawmakers that a public education exercise would be launched to sensitise members of the public about the proposed new law.

“We are going to have to ensure that we have a very effective public education programme,” Grange said, pointing out that it would impact “our cultural norms”.

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com