MalayMail-July 20
Lawmakers passed the Anti-Sexual Harassment Bill in the Dewan Rakyat this evening despite concerns that the proposed law has significant gaps that could deny complainants the necessary redress and lacked prevention mechanisms to protect victims. However, its passage today remains a small victory for women who have fought for a law to curb sexual harassment for over three decades. The law, first tabled in 2018 after thirty years in the making, was approved through bloc voting. The first reading of the Bill was held on December 15 last year. Many of the concerns raised over the Bill centered around the tribunal that would handle sexual harassment complaints. During the debate, former law minister Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said questioned the rationale behind appointing the Women, Families and Community Development secretary-general as the special anti-sexual harassment administrator in the proposed law. Azalina, the Barisan Nasional MP for Pengerang who is among the leading voices fighting to realize the Bill, said that the appointment of a single individual to the role could be challenged under administrative laws for illegality, irrationality and unreasonableness in court as it does not happen anywhere else in the world where such laws exist. The former minister said she found it unacceptable that just one individual, the secretary-general, be appointed as the administrator. Under the law, the mooted Tribunal for Anti-Sexual Harassment will be empowered, among others, to award compensation and direct respondents to issue an official apology to complainants. Read more at: https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2022/07/20/despite-lingering-concerns-dewan-rakyat-votes-through-anti-sexual-harassment-bill/18495
