Sexual Harassment law upset parliamentarians who refer it to committees for review

Legal Agenda revealed in a news published last Friday, what happened during the legislative session last week with regards to the legislative proposal entitled ‘Urgent Act aiming at criminalizing sexual harassment and racist abuse”, presented by Member of Parliament Ghassan Mukhaiber on 14/5/2014”. According to the discussions, contempt and patriarchy prevailed and MPs succeeded eventually in postponing approval of the law to a later date. In the details, and when Mukhaiber was presenting his proposal and reasons for regarding it as urgent, stating that it is a serious law and is categorized within acts of violence against women and girls at a time when there is no law in Lebanon that protects [them] with any relevant provisions’, this was accompanied by sarcastic comments and loud laughs. One of the parliamentarians broke those shouts addressing Moukhaiber saying: “I envy you, Ghassan, you have nothing to worry about”. Direct support to the proposed legislation came through the parliamentarians from the bloc ‘wafaa lilmuqawama’, who demanded an amendment to add “abuse based on racist reasons”. Consequently, Berri asked Mukhaiber and Minister of State for Women’s Affairs Jean Ogassapian to deliberate on the side and merge the two proposals and present them to a vote. Amendments [in Arabic] can be reviewed on the following link:http://legal-agenda.com/article.php?id=3408). However, and according to the Legal Agenda, the proposed new law was not to the taste of the parliamentarians who continued to exchange sarcastic comments being such as one saying: “What if a female employee wanted revenge from her manager, and went ahead and filed a complaint against him charging him with sexual harassment?” Another one asked “Does every whatsapp message allow [anyone] to file a complaint for sexual harassment?” In view of the prevailing general atmosphere, the law was finally retracted, and discussions resumed on the mechanism of ascertaining a woman’s allegations.  In conclusion some of the members of parliament suggested the withdrawal of the law proposal and its referral to the committees for further review. The text of the law proposed by Ghassan Mukhaiber can be accessed on the following link: http://bit.ly/2j8AWV9). (Legal Agenda January, 20, 2018)