The first ever workshop exploring issues of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace took place in Beijing on Monday 21 July, 2003. This was an opportunity for key Chinese experts to get together and discuss potential next steps to make advances in this area, including the potential to develop legal remedies. The workshop participants were particularly pleased that Ms Cherie Booth QC, wife of the United Kingdom Prime Minister, Tony Blair, took time to drop in to the workshop to discuss her experience as a UK lawyer.
Recent newspaper coverage of the issue in China has indicated that what constitutes 'evidence' as being of key importance to advancing legal remedies in the field. Ms Cherie Booth QC, drawing from her own experience of the issue in the United Kingdom, gave a 15 minute presentation on the role of evidence in the United Kingdom legal system. The sixteen participants involving the key Chinese experts in the field of women's rights and interests found Ms Booth's comments enlightening.
China is committed to advancing the rights of women. We have adopted a positive stance to women's rights since the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing 1995. In Beijing we have a strong commitment though joint Sino-British efforts to support various women's organisations, and other civil society groups, in delivering innovative work in areas such as domestic violence through the development of support services for women. We are delighted that the 10th session of the National Peoples Congress in March this year declared a review of the 1992 'Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Women' and confirming that our Chinese partners with whom we work are on the rights track. For example, the British Council has supported all five areas currently under review; Women's right for political participation, Labour rights, Marriage and Family rights (including domestic violence), Sexual Harassment , Right of Social Security.
Gary Hallsworth, Head of our China governance team said; 'Sexual Harassment in the workplace' is a sensitive topic in any country and involves men and women looking at themselves in terms of how they relate to each other. Clear and understandable legal remedies and the rules that underpin them would provide a clear signal to both men and women about appropriate ways to behave with each other in the workplace. Employers through developing their own professional codes of conduct can also play a valuable role in this respect'.
Strengthening the 'Law on the protection of Women's Rights and Interests' should be welcomed by everyone as it can underpin the valuable contribution women make to China's economic, social and political development and challenge outdated attitudes about the role of women in a modern society.
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