Category: Work Place Harassment

President Arif Alvi has called for economic and financial empowerment, property rights, health and nutrition, coupled with quality education and skills and a harassment-free workplace to motivate the women who make up almost 50 per cent of the population to play their due and active role in business, trade, and services sectors of the country.

The president expressed these views while addressing the launching ceremony of the Federal Ombudsperson Secretariat for Protection against Harassment (FOSPAH)’s Annual Report, launched in coordination with the UN Women, at Aiwan-e-Sadr on Friday.

The president expressed his solidarity with flood victims around the country and expressed his condolences and offered prayers for those who had lost their lives during devastating floods. The participants also observed one minute of silence in solidarity with the flood victims.

Federal Ombudsperson for Protection against Harassment Kashmala Khan, UN Women’s Country’s Representative in Pakistan Sharmila Rasool, and Country Director of United Institute of Peace (USIP), Pakistan Adnan Rafiq, also addressed the occasion.

Members of the diplomatic community, media persons and women from different walks of life attended the ceremony. The president, along with Kashmala Khan and other speakers launched the Annual Report of FOSPAH.

Addressing the ceremony, the president said that our social and cultural attitudes and intellectual biases toward women’s rights, their economic and financial empowerment and gainful employment, and our moral and ethical values needed correction on the basis of Islamic teachings which called for equal education opportunities for both man and women and allowed women to seek gainful employment by following Hazrat Khadija (RA) as a role model who was a successful businesswoman.

The president said that women’s inclusion in the economy could be enhanced by improving their mobility and providing them equal opportunities in the business, trade and services sectors and creating a safe and secure work environment to enable them to realise their fullest potential and by taking affirmative action wherever necessary.

He said that in Pakistan, only 24 percent of women were working in the formal and informal sectors of the economy which was very low compared to men whose economic participation was around 90 percent. He said that no country can make meaningful socio-economic progress without the full participation of women in the economy.

He further said that women should be treated as equal citizens as ordained in Islam and in the Constitution of Pakistan. He said that the practice of women voluntarily resigning from their property rights in favour of their male family members should be discouraged to stop the exploitation of women’s rights on inherited properties.

The president said that over 80 percent of the admission taken in professional colleges were by women but their retention in gainful employment was very low due to social and domestic constraints. This trend, he said, needed to be reversed on a priority basis through collective action by the government, families and women themselves.

He also called upon the industrial and services sectors to create a harassment-free work environment in their establishments where their own women family members and their women employees could contribute their share in creating wealth for their company and for the country.

The president appreciated the Federal Ombudsperson for taking concrete steps for the expansion of its offices to Peshawar, Karachi, and Lahore to provide relief to women complainants at their doorstep. He also commended the Federal Ombudsperson for its hard work, commitment and introducing IT-based solutions for filing appeals, taking statements and recording evidence, which had increased the number of 500 cases filed from 2010-2018 to 5,000 cases from 2018-2022.

The president advised FOSPAH to continue its efforts and improve upon it to create awareness in the society on the importance of women’s education and their economic role in society and to encourage them to approach Women Ombudsperson for resolution of their issues relating to property rights and workplace harassment.

Earlier, Kashmala addressed the ceremony and highlighted that FOSPAH was an autonomous quasi-judicial body that provided justice to aggrieved persons in cases involving harassment at the workplace and denial of property rights to women within 60 days.

She said that the establishment of a women-specific institution was indicative of the state’s resolve toward protecting women’s rights and ensuring their participation in the workforce.

Sharmila in her address said that enhancing women’s participation in the workforce would help improve Pakistan’s economy, besides helping it achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Adnan highlighted that members of society needed to be more sensitive to the difficulties faced by women during their movement and while performing their duties in the workplace

Source: Business Recorder

Historically, women have been disadvantaged financially and in access to education. This affects their ability to manage risks and harms. Improving how risk and safety issues are communicated to women and sharing ways in which their other counterparts have taken actions will contribute significantly to efforts to win greater equality.

The European Economic and Social Committee, 2015, has held that gender-based violence at the workplace is a serious violation of human rights and an attack on a person’s dignity and physical and psychological integrity. Across the world, 35 percent of women fall victim to direct violence at the workplace. Of these, between 40 percent and 50 percent are subjected to forced physical contact. Globally, the World Risk Poll found that nearly 11 percent of female workers had experienced workplace violence and harassment. It is a widespread and major detriment to women’s enjoyment of fundamental rights and freedoms.

The ILO has established new global standards aimed at ending violence and harassment in the world of work. ILO Convention No 190 (C-190 for short) is the first international treaty to recognise the right of everyone to a world of work free from violence and harassment, including gender-based violence and harassment. The convention was adopted in June 2019 by the International Labour Conference of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and came into force on June 25, 2021. Governments that ratify C190 will be required to put in place the necessary laws and policy measures to prevent and address violence and harassment in the world of work. The convention represents a historic opportunity to shape a future of work based on dignity and respect for all.

The ILO is now embarking on a global campaign to build support for C-190. It is inviting constituents, stakeholders and civil society actors to get involved. The end goal is for the convention to be ratified and implemented by national governments and legislative assemblies around the world. The new convention will combat violence and harassment at the workplace. It recognises that it “can constitute a human rights violation or abuse.”

Sexual harassment at the workplace remains under-reported because of fear of disbelief, blame and social or professional retaliation. Discrimination and harassment claims may arise when workplace violence is motivated by a protected characteristic such as race, religion, faith, caste, class and colour.

Sexual harassment at the workplace remains under-reported because of fear of disbelief, blame and social or professional retaliation. Discrimination and harassment claims may arise when workplace violence is motivated by a protected characteristic such as race, religion, faith, caste, class and colour. Additionally, gender-based violence causes physical and mental harm that may incapacitate a victim and increase absence or decrease workplace productivity. Even a minor physical injury or bruising may cause a victim to skip work in order to avoid the shame or embarrassment of inquiries from co-workers.

According to a survey, the highest incidences of violence against women occur in the labour class. Industrial workers form a huge group, and are often at risk of violence and harassment at their workplace. Poverty, low literacy rate, social pressures and a particular mindset about women and girls have resulted in a bounded attitude as a routine in their culture. Sexual harassment in the private sector is more frequent than in public sector. Harassment mostly takes place in the form of verbal abuse, mental torture and threats. Mostly bosses and senior management staff harass junior women clerks at the workplace. To secure a job, most of the working women, particularly those who are the sole bread earners in their families, are unwilling to take any action.

The annual growth rate of participation of women in the workforce has increased since 1990. It was 13.2 percent in 1990 and reached to 22.4 percent in 2017. Still, women‘s work participation is very low in comparison with other countries in South Asia. Women in Pakistan constitute nearly a fourth of the labour force. Two major factors preclude women from entering the paid labour force; socio-culture norms and sexual harassment at workplace.

The Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2010, defines sexual harassment. Under Section 509 of the Pakistan Penal Code, insulting the modesty of women or sexually harassing them is a crime. The perpetrator of this crime may be punished with imprisonment that may extend to 3 years or a fine up to Rs 500,000 or with both.

Section 3 of the Act requires employers to set up an inquiry committee that must consist of three members, with at least one female member. Further, Section 11 of the Act requires an employer to display and circulate a code of conduct on sexual harassment in English and Urdu. However, there is no provision for checks on behalf of the government to ensure that all organisations have established such a code of conduct. Sexual harassment at the workplace can also take place through online modes. This has not been covered explicitly in the Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2010.

Source: The News (Writer: Muhammad Pasha Javed)

LAHORE – Special Assistant to Punjab Chief Minister on Information a Hasaan Khawar has said that Punjab government had enacted legislation against gender-based violence and harassment to end prevailing sense of insecurity among women folk. Punjab Government Spokesperson Hasaan Khawar said the society at large was suffering due to intolerance of a few. SACM expressed these views while speaking at a seminar on gender-based violence here at Lahore High Court. Khawar said that gender-based violence was a problem not only for women but men also.  “In order to end this menace, we, the men, need to go through self-accountability and change our thinking pattern. Women are being harassed because of the lethargic mechanism of complaint redressal,” he added.  He said, “To end violence against women, we have to make our workplaces safe for them and take urgent and effective measures to provide them special facilities at police stations, courts, investigative agencies and other departments.

Source: The Nation