KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 1 — The e-filing system for sexual harassment victims to alert the Tribunal for Anti-Sexual Harassment (TAGS) being developed by the Women, Family, and Community Development Ministry (KPWKM) is expected to start operation next year.
Its deputy minister Datuk Seri Noraini Ahmad said the system will facilitate sexual harassment victims nationwide to file complaints to TAGS online considering the geographical constraints in Sabah and Sarawak.
“This tribunal can sit on any day, time and place, as determined by the president (tribunal) and the ministry also appoints tribunal members from Sabah and Sarawak; if there are complaints in the states on the East Coast, this tribunal can sit there,” she said during the Dewan Negara question-and-answer session today.
Noraini was responding to Senator Anna Bell’s query on KPWKM’s consideration of establishing Anti-Sexual Harassment Tribunals in Sabah and Sarawak to facilitate hearings since the two states are geographically separated from Peninsular Malaysia.
Meanwhile, in response to Senator Datuk Arman Azha Abu Hanifah’s query on the statistics of sexual harassment and deterioration of mental health among Malaysians, the deputy minister said that until July, TAGS had received five complaints of sexual harassment since it was first established on March 8.
“Statistics by the Royal Malaysian Police indicate that cases reported for Offences under Sections 292, 354, 377D, 507A, and 509 of the Penal Code pertaining to sexual harassment are 1,483 cases in 2021, 1,455 cases in 2022, and 1,621 cases in 2023.
“For cases of sexual harassment involving men reported from 2019 to 2023, there were 484 victims, which is 6.3 per cent of all cases for the same period,” she said.
— Bernama
