Law against Sexual Harassment in Qatar Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Law against Sexual Harassment in Qatar - Essay Example In the referendum, held on April 29, 2003, about 97% voters approved a new constitution. The constitution gives equal rights to the women. In Qatar public protests and political demonstrations are not permissible. Trade groups, women groups and political parties have not been granted license. In 2002 the Emir ordered to establish National Committee for Human Rights to implement the aims of internation human rights charter and to report the human rights violation. The constitution of Qatar guarantees women the equal rights as citizens . Article 35 explicitly stipulates, "[A]ll people are equal before the law. There shall be no discrimination on account of sex, origin, language or religion." No doubt, the constitution gives protection to women but in reality there have been no formal mechanism to provide opportunity to women to register their complaints against gender discrimination. The government is not interested to take measures to protect the legal rights of women. Moreover, the Islamic Laws, as implemented in Qatar are discriminatory against women and women do not have the legal protection if the law of inheritance is violated. â€Å"The term sexual harassment is understood internationally as the abuse of authority by persons in positions of power with the purpose of coercing persons under their authority into granting sexual favors.† (The Arab Human Development Report, 2005 and for comprehensive review, see Paludi & Paludi,2003: Sbraga & O’ Donohue, 2000) Unfortunately Arab penal codes do not provide us the concrete definition of sexual harassment. There are laws to punish the crime of rape, sexual abuse and extorting sexual favors but Arab penal codes does not define sexual harassment as it is defined internationally. The foreigners, working in Qatar, does not have the right of citizenship, it is reported that foreign nationals employed as domestic worker face sexual harassment at their work place.