Nancy: Spreading awareness of sexual harassment among students through talks

KUCHING (Jan 23): Talks related to sexual harassment are being held in schools to spread awareness among students of inappropriate behaviours, said federal Women, Family and Community Development Minister Dato Sri Nancy Shukri.

She said she was aware of several sexual harassment cases involving student victims happening in Sarawak and she believed many more such cases had gone unreported.

“In reality, the perpetrators in many of these sexual harassment cases are members of the student’s own family and the victims did not know how to seek help,” she said to reporters after officiating at a ‘Back to School’ programme held at a community hall in Kampung Tanjong Bako here yesterday.

Bearing this in mind, the Santubong Member of Parliament said her ministry in collaboration with several organisations is organising sexual harassment talks in 21 schools located in her constituency.

Commenting on the recent setting up of a tribunal for anti-sexual harassment, Nancy said the body has been operational since the end of last year and the tribunal is temporarily conducting its proceedings at the ministry’s office at Putrajaya, while the main building is under renovation.

“I must say the tribunal offers an alternative for victims of sexual harassment to seek compensation for the ordeal that they experienced. Before this, such cases were handled as criminal cases under the Sexual Offences Act,” she said, pointing out sexual harassment will now be treated as a civil case before the tribunal.

In this regard, she added, the relevant officers are now undergoing training and up-skilling to manage sexual harassment cases.

Nancy also said she had personally requested for one panellist each to be appointed from Sabah and Sarawak when conducting proceedings to ease the management of cases involving the interests of the Borneo states.

On a separate matter, Nancy said she was working with Deputy Prime Minister Dato Sri Fadillah Yusof on the return of a Sarawakian and her two children from the Philippines, where the mother’s passport was withheld by the immigration authority after she failed to pay the penalty for overstaying in the country.