The Executive Director of the Justice and Human Rights Institute, Prof. Ken A. Attafuah, has called for the amendment of the law establishing the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Act. 456, to explain clearly what sexual harassment stands for. "For the avoidance of doubt, it would be helpful that future amendment include sexual harassment, in order to erase any possible doubt about its illegality," he stated. At a day's training workshop organised in Accra by CHRAJ for its personnel on the "Prevention and Responding to Sexual Harassment in Ghana", Prof. Attafuah stated that "there is no judicial definition of sexual harassment in our Constitution up to date, except for references to definitions in the United States Constitution and the Supreme Court of British Columbia". That general definition, he said was, "any unwelcome conduct of sexual nature that detrimentally affects the working environment of the per¬son". For any unwelcome conduct, Prof. Attafuah said "a reasonable person would have known or ought to have known that the conduct was unwelcome", and, "the victim does not need to confront "the harasser for him or her to know that his or her conduct was unwelcome". He pointed out that some sexual conducts were not only physical or verbal in nature, but other methods which were clearly of a sexual nature. Giving examples to support his points, he mentioned suggestive comments, crude or sexually abusive remarks, display of sexually explicit materials, appearing naked in front of an employee and offering gifts of lingerie, among other gifts. Sexual harassment, according to him, was a gender problem, but women in particular were the most vulnerable, and called for the widespread education on what constituted sexual harassment, how to prevent it and how it could be effectively responded to or addressed. Sexual harassment was a serious problem affecting society, especially women and girls at the workplace, schools and even places of worship, he stated. The acting Commissioner of CHRAJ, Ms Anna Bossman, said the problem of sexual harassment was rife in our society, and gave an example where a managing director of a company refuted the illegality of sexual harassment on a radio station in Accra. She said the workshop would be extended to civil societies and replicated in other regions. Source: Daily Graphic