Sexual harassment in the workplace gaining attention of Women’s Commission

Georgetown: The question of sexual harassment in the workplace has been gaining the attention of the Women and Gender Equality Commission. In fact, according to former Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Indranie Chandarpal, who has since been appointed Chairperson of the Commission, the commemoration of May Day last year saw the issue being ventilated.

“Usually we would take all of the findings and we would assess them and then we would made recommendations as we see fit…this is the way we work,” Chandarpal noted as she addressed a Women’s forum spearheaded by the Commission. She revealed that among the mandate of the Commission, “we are required to submit periodical reports to the National Assembly and to make recommendations where necessary and this is something that we will be doing.”

She pointed out that although there are policies and adequate legislations in place, some injustices are still allowed to prevail in the society.  Referring to some cases of injustices, Chandarpal said that “these are just a snippet of some of the things taking place in our society…These things are happening against a background where we have policies and adequate legislations and large sums of monies are spent annually on (some) organisations to perfect whatever mechanisms (including) the support systems so that we could safely say that we have some measure of justice in our society.”

It is for this reason, she noted, that the Commission, which she represents has a mandate to continually educate stakeholders about the things that are required of them to ensure that they help to prevent the injustices that prevail.

The Women and Gender Equality Commission is recognised as an essential part of the rights commission established in the Constitution. Aside from Chandarpal, among the appointed Commissioners of the body are: Deputy Chairperson, Ms Cheryl Sampson, Ms Shalimar Ali-Hack, Ms Gaitri Baron, Ms Hymanwattie Lagan, Ms Bibi Haliema Khan, Ms Gillian Burton, Ms Renata Chuck-A-Sang, Ms Nicole Cole, Ms Ernestine Logan, Ms Magda Pollard, Ms Nadranie Coonjah, Ms Karen Vansluytman-Corbin, Ms Debra Henry, Ms Vanda Radzik, Ms Sandra Hooper, Ms Doreen Jacobis and the lone man Mr Peter Persaud.

The Women and Gender Equality Commission is one of the Four Commissions for the Promotion and Enhancement of Fundamental Rights and the Rule of Law that was established under section 212G of the Constitution. Members were appointed under Resolution No. 86 which was passed in the National Assembly on May 21, 2009.

The Commission is designed to promote national recognition and acceptance that women’s rights are human rights, respect for gender equality and the protection, development and attainment of gender equality.

In addition to its main objective, the functions of the Commission are to: promote the issues related to the enhancement of the status of women, girls and gender issues; promote the integration of women’s needs and interests and mainstreaming of the gender issues. It is also intended to promote the empowerment of women, promote women’s rights as human rights and raise the awareness of the contributions of women and problems faced by women including the recognition and value of unwaged work.

Further still, the Commission is expected to promote women’s needs, interests and concerns in the wider spectrum of economic and social development and address both the practical and strategic needs of women as being different from those of men.