world

France adopts new sexual harassment law

20 Comments

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© 2012 AFP

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

20 Comments
Login to comment

people should be accepted for what they are.

What if a person believes that he/she was born a pedophile?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

If I meet a transhuman (half man and half ape)

FYI, that is not what the word transhuman means.

Re: This article, any harrassment is wrong and should be punished. As long as they are not breaking any laws, people should be accepted for what they are.

2 ( +9 / -7 )

I would discretion rather than fear applies, as for transsexuals or anyone else you bump into that doesn't fit the norm.

Fear is a mistranslation. The cases that happened are about bad treatment. It's surely not easy to live a change of gender and, the process takes like 5 to 10 years from the day they change of appearance until they have all their documents changed and even, some cannot change official ID ever, as they don't meet the medical criteria. So they even if they change of employer, the new one will know they are in that situation. And they should be allowed to keep their job anyway. A case I've seen on TV : There is a woman, formerly a man, but now she lives as Pauline Hername. Most people are nice to her. But her employer is a a-hole. He keeps calling her "Monsieur Robert Hername" in all documents, name plate on her desk, telling her to wear the masculine dress code... and telling her , every single day,"hey, Robert, why are you disguised in woman again" in front of all coworkers, customers, etc. That's moral harassment in the workplace and transphobia.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Not that anything excuses sexual harassment, I'm just thinking as many of you are that the accusations are easily made

by those not scared to use the system for false accusation for personal gain.

Not only are there girls and women in the U.S. doing this it is double tragic because the man ends up on their registration lists for 25-to-life.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

"If I meet a transhuman (half man and half ape) walking down the street, am I allowed to be afraid?"

There's plenty of Latin dudes that fit that description. I would discretion rather than fear applies, as for transsexuals or anyone else you bump into that doesn't fit the norm.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

If I meet a transhuman (half man and half ape) walking down the street, am I allowed to be afraid?

Or will my fear be cause for arrest under the transphobia clause.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Viva la differan---never mind.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

France has been behind the times on sexism and sexual harassment for decades.

Employees rights in France are ridiculously stacked up in favour against the employer, what passes for an industrial tribunal here (prud hommes) will always favour the employee and hand out rewards taken in fines. With free legal aide for most of these cases, there's no wonder there is a mountain of on-going litigation.

Not that anything excuses sexual harassment, I'm just thinking as many of you are that the accusations are easily made by those not scared to use the system for false accusation for personal gain.

And the last thing I want is the Nanny State gaining more sweeping powers.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

surely "making it mandatory"?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

A bit late to start this, don't you think? But when enacting new laws, things need to get ironed out. In the states after the O.J, Nicole Simpson murders, they went overkill and would lock up anyone claiming they were inappropriately touched or harassed would get locked up, I think it'll get a bit slippery for a while before it tons itself out.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

This is what makes hiring females scary. Too much legal litigation's, best to not just hire any females at all because of all these risks. And these are the unintended consequences of these ridiculous laws.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Sexual harassment must truly be a serious problem in France.

Like in Japan. Lots of suicides.

It only takes one disgruntled employee to destroy an entire career with a baseless lawsuit.

They canceled the previous law to avoid that. I have not read it, but the new text is said to define the criminal actions and the proofs more clearly.

places any male at the mercy of a vindictive female.

Any bully that harasses male or female at the mercy of justice.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

The law also covers moral harassment in the workplace and transphobia—fear of transgender people or transsexuals.

I think they mean transphobia in the same light as xenophobia, not as arachnophobia. It's not fearing, it's hating.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

They use 'rights' as an excuse to grab and wield absolute power.This law will be arbitrarily enforced at best, selectively at worst.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

When it comes to rape and physical abuse there's very few punishments that I find too severe but when it comes to harassment laws I get really skeptical really fast. It only takes one disgruntled employee to destroy an entire career with a baseless lawsuit. When it comes to managing behavior I generally think that it's best left to internal company policy and human resources.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Another step in the rise of the male hemaphrodite.

I agree with with Wolfpack. Rape and other acts of sexual violence should be met with jail time and covered under the criminal code, but this law seems to go too far and places any male at the mercy of a vindictive female.

It's getting to the stage where you'd be scared to say good morning to your female work colleague incase she construed it as some form of sexual harassment.

Such issues should be more the domain of civil, rather than criminal law, with more funds set aside to make civil justice accessible to more people.

-6 ( +3 / -9 )

Sexual harassment has a much broader definition in the new law to allow for a range of different situations, including “intimidating, hostile or offensive” incidents.

This is where things get tricky.....

2 ( +2 / -0 )

While I detest any kind of bullying of anyone anywhere,

legislated correct speech and actions are scary and sad to me.

There needs to be room for ppl to be ppl.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I certainly don't want to make light of sexual harassment but jail time? If it's rape then yeah, I got no problem with hard time for a crime of that seriousness. Harassment is bad but taking away someones freedom for years is a very serious matter as well. Sexual harassment must truly be a serious problem in France.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

The French parliament unanimously adopted new legislation Tuesday, making sexual harassment a criminal offense punishable by up to three years in jail to replace a law that was deemed too vague.

The law also covers moral harassment in the workplace and transphobia-fear of transgender people or transsexuals.

Fined and/or jailed, for fear ?

Nothing vague about that...

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites