Legislators in Shanghai submitted a draft to the city's legislature on Wednesday, which for the first time specifies forms of sexual harassment in China.

The draft, referring to Shanghai's implementation of the national Law on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women, says in its 31st item that "sexual harassment of women in the form of spoken and written language, images, electronic information and bodily gestures is prohibited."

"Harassed women have the right to report the case to the relevant organizations, which should take measures to prevent women from being sexually harassed," the draft added.

It stated that women who are sexually harassed have the right to ask public security department to punish the harassers, and bring a civil lawsuit against them.

Legal experts said that specifying the forms of sexual harassment will make existing state-level laws more effective.

When China's Law on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women was revised last year, an item was added that "prohibited the sexual harassment of women." However, the law was not very helpful due to a lack of definition or clarity on its scope, experts said.

Some believe that sexual harassment is essentially a subjective feeling of the "harassed object". In other words, judgment should be determined by whether the actions were purposefully carried out, whether or not they were welcome and whether or not they gave rise to serious consequences.

State laws and the new draft focus on the objective forms of sexual harassment. It remains to be seen whether this approach will contribute to the enforcement of the law.

(Xinhua News Agency October 26, 2006)