MHRC orients informal sector on sexual harassment

Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) has bemoaned lack of knowledge and understanding of sexual harassment issues in the informal sector which continues to fuel the vice.

MHRC executive secretary Habiba Osman expressed the sentiments in an interview on Thursday at the start of a two-day stakeholder engagement on sexual harassment currently underway at Crossroads Hotel in Blantyre.

The engagement is mainly targeting stakeholders from the informal sector.

Osman said it is important that the informal sector be oriented on issues of sexual harassment as opposed to the current status where such issues are focused on the formal sector.

She said: “The informal sector is usually the one that is left behind.”

However, the participants turned down media interviews when approached.

On July 26 2022, MHRC released a report titled ‘Situation Analysis: Report on Engaging the Private, Public and Informal Sector on Addressing Sexual Gender-Based Violence and Sexual Harassment in the Workplace, which established that there is a huge knowledge gap on sexual harassment in workplaces, including the business sector.

The report established that about 70 percent of cooperatives, journalists, district labour officers and Industrial Relations/Magistrate’s courts have little knowledge of sexual harassment. Besides, the report exposed the absence of sexual harassment workplace policy documents.

Malawi Human Rights Resource Centre director Emma Kaliya blamed the silence culture and urged women to stand up and fight the vice by not shielding perpetrators.