Presentation on the Sexual Harassment Act, 2019

Recorded presentation before the Joint Select Committee in the House of Parliament reviewing the Sexual Harassment Act, 2019. The clip below begins at the start of the presentation.

Prepared for the Jamaican Network of Seropositives (JN+), this submission responds to the Sexual Harassment Bill tabled in July 2019 and puts forward twelve recommendations to strengthen it.

It welcomes the Bill’s foundations — a clear definition of sexual harassment, a dedicated tribunal, and protection that reaches beyond the workplace — but argues its scope is still too narrow. Among the changes it calls for: bringing street harassment into the Act; broadening the definition of a “sexual advance”; removing any statute of limitations on reporting; covering harassment between peers and in institutions such as schools, hospitals, and state care; mandatory sensitisation for the authorised officers and the tribunal; counselling for complainants; a public-education campaign led by the Ministries of Labour and of Education; an explicit prohibition on victimising employees who complain; and closing loopholes in Sections 4(4), 5, and 6(1). The case is framed around Jamaica’s rape culture and survey evidence that most workplace harassment goes unreported, and draws on comparable legislation in Barbados, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.

Full recording and committee record available on request.