Our Roundtable Discussions over the next few months will be part of a series under the theme Sexual Autonomy, Free Of Coercion.

Women’s right to sexual autonomy is imposed upon by many coercive forces, including laws, policies, religious prescriptions, cultural values, family structures, social pressures.

What do we mean by ‘sexual autonomy, free of coercion’? It means not to be forced to have sex with people that we do not want. It means the right to consent or not to consent. It also means the right to choose who we want to have sexual relations with (or even not at all).

In our Roundtable Discussions, we will explore the coercive forces that are imposed on women, including those in the family, workplace and other social contexts. Such coercion impacts negatively on women’s physical and psychological health and well-being, with ripple effects on the rest of society.

We kick off this series with our Roundtable  Discussion on June 21, which focuses on workplace sexual harassment.

Workplace Sexual Harassment is common in Singapore. In its 2008 Workplace Sexual Harassment Survey, 54% of the 500 respondents reported that they experienced some form of sexual harassment.

Yet, Singapore’s laws and mechanism in this area are woefully inadequate. In 2007 and 2011, the UN CEDAW Committee repeated its call to Singapore to comply with its obligation to enact legislation on sexual harassment in the workplace and in educational institutions. Nothing has yet been done.

To assist the State to fulfill its CEDAW obligations, AWARE’s Workplace Sexual Harassment Committee has prepared a further report showing why:

a) based on cases reported to AWARE’s Support Services, the current laws and mechanisms are simply inadequate

b) it is in the interest of Singapore to provide better protection in this area

The Committee strongly urges the State to expand the proposed Cyber Harassment Act to a comprehensive Harassment Act to deal with all forms of harassment, including Workplace Sexual Harassment. This would be appropriate, expedient and innovative.

The Committee, led by Corinna Lim, will present and discuss, its findings and its proposals for legal reform. Please do attend to find out more and to share your views on the proposed solutions.

EVENT DETAILS

Date: Thursday 21 June 2012
Time: 7:30pm
Venue: AWARE Centre

Sign up for this event here.