Reps Pass Sexual Harassment Bill Through Third Reading, Offenders to Face Stiffer Fines, Jail Terms
By Juliet Vincent
The House of Representatives has passed the Bill “to Prevent, Prohibit and Redress Sexual Harassment of Students in Tertiary Educational Institutions” through Third Reading.
The Bill titled, “A Bill for an Act to Prevent, Prohibit and Redress Sexual Harassment of Students in Tertiary Educational Institutions and for Related Matters (HB.1598)”.
It sets out stiff penalties ranging from jail terms to hefty fines on conviction, to Lecturers and a,dministrators in Higher institutions who sexually harass their students.
The Bill provides that,, “Any person who commits any of the offences or acts specified in Clause 4 (1), (2) and (3) of this Bill is guilty of an offence of felony and shall, on conviction, be sentenced to an imprisonment term of up to 14 years but not less than 5 years, without an option of a fine.
“Any person who commits any of the offences or acts specified in Clause 4 (4), (5) and (6) of this Bill is guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment term of up to 5 years but not less than 2 years, without an option of a fine”.
It added that, “A copy of the written Sexual Harassment Petition complaining of sexual harassment in Clause 8 of this Bill shall be delivered by the student or the student’s representative to both the administrative head and Secretary of the Independent Sexual Harassment Committee of the affected institution for record purposes and such actions that may be required under this Bill.
“Criminal proceedings shall commence or be deemed to have commenced under this Bill when a charge has been filed in Court and the processes served on an educator who is alleged to have committed a sexual harassment offence under this”.
It further provided that, “A relationship of authority, dependency and trust shall be construed to exist between an educator and a student in an institution if: the educator is directly or indirectly involved in the full-time or part-time academic training, teaching, advising, supervision and education of the student; or the educator has direct or indirect academic or non-academic authority over the student; or the student depends, directly or indirectly, on the educator in any manner whatsoever.
“To uphold the Objective of this Bill, an educator shall observe a fiduciary duty of care to every student by not exploiting a student or his/her relationship with a student for personal gains, sexual pleasure, or immoral satisfaction, or in any way whatsoever that violates the sacrosanctity, honour and inviolability of the fiduciary relationship of authority, dependency and trust between him/her and a student,” it stressed.