Sexual Harassment Law Malaysia
This article was first published on 9 august.
Sexual harassment law malaysia. In june 2016 the federal court of malaysia in mohd ridzwan abdul razak v asmah hj mohd nor made a landmark decision in introducing the tort of sexual harassment into our legal and judicial system. An employee of lembaga tabung haji lodged a complaint to the ceo of the company alleging sexual harassment by her supervisor. Besides that punishment with imprisonment for a term up between 10 to 30 years along with whipping can be imposed on those who committed rape under these circumstances.
A sexual harassment law would provide a clear definition of prohibitive conduct and outline the seriousness of the violation. Section 509 of the penal code which criminalises the offence of insulting the modesty of a woman with a custodial penalty of up to five years has been regarded as not sufficiently wide to encompass all the elements of sexual harassment. To begin with there is no particular legislation in malaysia that is tailored specifically to eliminate workplace sexual harassment despite the continuous calls for better.
As such the law does not provide an exhaustive list as to what amounts to sexual harassment so as to cater for all types of harassments. Women s rights organisation sisters in islam sis has urged the government to expedite its work on a law against sexual harassment following a molest case in which the. The first was a claim made by former ceo of magic cheryl yeoh against venture capitalist dave mcclure and next were pictures of men doing obscene acts on the shell cutout lady being shared on social media.
Malaysia will certainly benefit from having a sexual harassment act based on its own unique cultural and social background. Sexual harassment laws in malaysia. Tackling workplace sexual harassment.
Jason ong is the assemblyperson for kebun bunga. And unfortunately shame and silence has allowed sexual harassment in malaysia to thrive. Sexual harassment is covered under part xva employment act 1955 but it has limitations.
Since 2000 wcc has been spearheading the joint action group for gender equality jag to campaign for a sexual harassment law for malaysia. As part of the growing recognition to the seriousness of this issue the federal court has also recently introduced the tort of sexual harassment into the malaysian legal landscape which means victims of sexual harassment can now sue their harassers for. Presently there is no special and comprehensive law on sexual harassment in malaysia.
According to the penal code section 376 those who committed rape will be punished with imprisonment for a term up to 20 years with whipping. To start with there are no specific laws in malaysia that is made to combat sexual harassment.
