E-Kantipur

KATHMANDU, OCT 01 - Three years have passed since Nepal’s law criminalised sexual harassment, but not a single perpetrator has been penalised nor has a victim got justice. Reason: Not a single victim of sexual harassment has knocked on the court door. 

This does not mean that the introduction of a special legal provision against sexual harassment has worked as a deterrent. The reality is that the law itself is inadequate and confusing, especially when it comes to motivating a victim to seek justice through legal means.

In 2002, the Supreme Court issued an order to the government to prepare a separate and special legislation on sexual harassment at workplace. However, almost after four years—on Oct. 3, 2006—the government came up with an easy solution: It amended a chapter on ‘intent to commit sexual intercourse’ of the Muluki Ain (the Civil Code), which loosely defined sexual harassment as any ‘unwanted’ activities that were carried out with an intention of having sexual pleasures, including touching, staring, unwelcome comments about one’s body, and display of sexually explicit images.

Law experts say that there are mainly three reasons why the government has failed to deal with sexual harassment: First, there is no separate law besides the provision in the Civil Code itself. As a result, there is a confusion as to how the victim could proceed ahead for a lawsuit. “The law does not say anything about evidence. How could a victim of sexual harassment, who is already disturbed, supply evidence that the court seeks?” questions advocate Mira Dhungana.

Second, the law has a very shaky arrangement on punishment as it says that a perpetrator of sexual harassment could be sentenced “up to” one-year jail term and fined Rs. 10,000, which creates loopholes for the offender to escape with minimum punishment that could be anything starting from 24-hour detention and Rs. 1 fine.

Third: The law defines some activities as sexual harassment, which should have come under ‘rape attempt’. The acts such as attempts to open others’ undergarments are also categorised as sexual harassment. “If anyone makes repeated attempts of sexual harassment, that too should be taken as something more than sexual harassment and be made liable to harsher punishment,” said Dhungana.

Government officials say they are in the process of finalising a draft bill on sexual harassment at workplace. “The Ministry of Law and Justice (MoLJ) has already forwarded a preliminary draft of the bill to the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, which will decide when and how to finalise it and register it for a parliamentary nod,” said MoLJ Joint Secretary Kamal Shalik Ghimire.

Women rights activists doubt that the new bill will address the problems associated with the victims of sexual harassment as it does not recognise harassment at public places. “We have limited the bill to workplace harassment because that was what we could do on the first attempt,” said Ghimire.

Without guaranteeing the protection of witnesses and the victims, Dhungana says, the laws on sexual harassment will continue to disappoint the victims as usual.

Posted on: 2009-10-01 09:34

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