Protection against the Harassment of Women at Workplace Act 2010: ICCI, RCCI vow to implement legislation

Two leading chambers of commerce and industry ie Islamabad and Rawalpindi Chambers have vowed to implement the "Protection against the Harassment of Women at Workplace Act 2010" in the industrial areas falling in its jurisdiction. They said that business community in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi will take active measures for the enforcement of legislation to protect women from harassment at workplace.
President ICCI Mahfooz Elahi and Vice president RCCI Mian Muhammad Ateeq said this while speaking at the launching of a report titled "Leaders of change: drawing lessons from case studies of organisations with anti-sexual harassment policies," here on Monday. The event was arranged by 'Alliance Against Sexual Harassment (AASHA)' in collaboration with international labour organisation Oxfam GB and Mehergah.
President ICCI Mehfoz Elahi, President Islamabad Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IWCCI) and Mian Muhammad Attique assured that they would ask all their members to implement the law within their respective organisations. They said that the legislation was a milestone in Pakistan's social history that will not only make it convenient for women to access public and work spaces but would also help change people's mind-set about relationship between men and women. Margaret Reads Rounds, Acting Country Director of International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Pakistan said sexual harassment is a violation of the fundamental rights of workers
She said sexual harassment at the workplace was increasingly being recognised as an occupational hazard and a violation of human rights which seriously undermines equality of opportunity and treatment between men and women in Pakistan. She said ILO continues to work in countries around the world to provide practical assistance to enable an environment where labour policies promote and foster gender equality. She said the ILO under its project 'Towards gender parity in Pakistan' was working with its constituents on raising awareness about sexual harassment at the workplace and sensitising key stakeholders about the law to protect women against sexual harassment. She said trade unions and workers' organisations were holding regular awareness sessions on sexual harassment to make workers aware not only of their rights, but also their responsibilities to prevent harassment. She said the Employers Federation of Pakistan was sensitising employers on the Act and has also advocated its adoption. As a result, 54 employers in Pakistan have endorsed compliance with the Act and 21 were in the process of doing the same.
She said that the ILO had also developed a toolkit for trainers that specifically address issues of sexual harassment at workplace and how to avoid and prevent them. Dr Fouzia Saeed, founding member AASHA while reading out excerpts from the report said sexual harassment at the workplace was a form of discrimination that violates the fundamental human rights of citizens and has been experienced by Pakistani women at places as diverse as factories, farms, fields, offices, hospitals and the parliament, where they have been intimidated, assaulted, abused and manipulated by those who have authority over their conditions of employment.
She said although pro-equality and anti-discriminatory provisions are made in a number of ILO conventions and the constitution, there were no laws that specifically defined sexual harassment or took sexual harassment in the workplace into account until the beginning of 2010 when the Government passed an amendment to section 509 of the PPC making sexual harassment in any location including workplace a crime in Pakistan and providing for punishment up to three years imprisonment and fine up to half million rupees for the offenders.