Seminars on the Safe Spaces Act or Republic Act 11313 were held for the women’s organizations in July 2022.
Signed in 2019, the law focuses on gender-based sexual harassment (GBSH) in public areas such as streets, educational or training institutions, workplaces, privately-owned places open to the public, and public utility vehicles, among others. It also includes the protection even to cyberspace. Any person may be an offender if s/he has made a transphobic, sexist comment. The law penalizes all forms of sexual harassment in these areas and in online spaces.
The law seeks to address the many gaps which is not covered by the sexual harassment under the previous legal framework and to promote gender equality. The law also contemplates that sexual harassment may also emanate from a colleague and not just from someone in the workplace who is a superior or who has moral ascendancy. Before the enactment of this act, sexual harassment may only be committed in the workplace, educational or training environment.
During the seminars, the participants who are members of the women’s organizations signified their concerns regarding their teenage children who need to know this law. They are victims of cat calling or men making whistles or comments of a sexual nature when they pass by. Some men may even be shouting harassing sexually suggestive, threatening or derisive comments at young women. These young women do not know that these acts are punishable by law.
Thus the participants said that they will disseminate what they have learned regarding this law to their children.
