Mehergarh: A Center for Learning, in collaboration with the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Thursday held a review session regarding the anti-sexual harassment legislation. The session was held at the Trust for Voluntary Organisations (TVO) hall.
The session, facilitated by Maliha Husain, was attended by those who have subsumed their spirits in the AASHA movement and have been proactively involved in having the anti-sexual harassment legislation implemented in their organisations. The guests included representatives of civil society organisations, private sector companies, government officials, lawyers, journalists, human rights activists and academicians.
The guests were invited to talk about the implementation process of the anti-sexual harassment legislation in their respective organisations, celebrate the successes and discuss the hurdles they faced and how they sought to overcome them to create a safe working environment.
The HRCP seeks to review the implementation process of the anti-sexual harassment legislation within two years since its promulgation and also seeks to review the efficacy and successes of the National Implementation Watch Committee (NIWC), formed on the platform of National Commission on the Status of Women, as a government body to facilitate and monitor the implementation the legislation.
The guests were given a presentation of the lessons learnt from the experiences of the organisations, who had adopted the anti-sexual harassment policy five to six years ago, before it became a law. The guests were able to relate to and fully understand the lessons that could be learned from the experiences of other organisations.
Programme Director Maliha Husain stated, “It is very heartening to see how progressive managements of organisations were taking the implementation of these laws seriously and striving to make our environments respectable and dignified for all.”
Autho of the best seller ‘Taboo’, Dr Fouzia Saeed, talked about her new book ‘Working with Sharks: Countering Sexual Harassment in our Lives’ towards the end of the session. She said, “The book is an initiative for all of us to speak out against sexual harassment and also chronicles the plight of those who ventured to speak out against sexual harassment in 1999.”
Dr Fouzia Saeed highlighted the factors that the managements should be mindful of when a complaint of sexual harassment was registered as well as the responsibilities of the management and the employees in ensuring a productive work environment.
