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The following is issued on behalf of the Women's Commission:
The Women's Commission (WoC) and the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) today (August 14) jointly organised a forum on preventing sexual harassment in universities to enhance university staff and students' knowledge of sexual harassment on campus and to explore relevant preventive measures.
"Hong Kong's renowned higher education is a cradle for nurturing future pillars of the society. However, sexual harassment still happens sometimes on campus and victims are mainly women. We hope to make use of this opportunity for representatives of related parties to get together to have a candid and in-depth discussion with a view to preventing tragedy caused by sexual harassment from happening again," said the Chairperson of the WoC, Mrs Stella Lau, in her welcoming remarks.
The forum, consisting of two colloquiums and a plenary sharing session, provided a platform for various stakeholders including representatives of the management members of universities, staff associations, student unions, women's groups and non-governmental organisations to deliberate on the relationship of sexual harassment and gender equality, so as to arouse public awareness of the issue.
At the two colloquiums, for which the Deputy Convenor of the Policy and Research Committee of the EOC, Dr John Tse, acted as the moderator, the guest speakers gave an account of the current situation of sexual harassment on campus first and then discussed with the audience feasible measures regarding issues such as the implementation of policy on preventing sexual harassment and encouraging victims to report the cases, etc.
The plenary sharing session, with Member of the WoC Ms Sandy Wong as the moderator, provided opportunities for all speakers and the audience to exchange views on topics related to the theme of the forum.
The Chairperson of the EOC, Mr Lam Woon-kwong, in his concluding remarks said, "By enhancing university staff and students' gender awareness and sensitivity about sexual harassment through gender education, it can effectively prevent and address sexual harassment issues on campus. Apart from compliance with law, we should also learn to treat others equally and respectfully, and strongly condemn sexual harassment so as to reduce the occurrence of such incidents."
Guest speakers at the forum included the Dean of Student Affairs, the University of Hong Kong, Dr Albert Chau; Member of Women's Affairs Watch, the Association for the Advancement of Feminism, Mr Chong Yiu-kwong; Associate Professor, Department of Applied Social Studies, City University of Hong Kong, Dr Leung Lai-ching; and the Head of the Policy and Research Unit, EOC, Dr Ferrick Chu.
Ends/Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Issued at HKT 15:30
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