China: Shenzhen Guidelines for Prevention and Control of Sexual Harassment were Released

The official website of the Shenzhen Women’s Federation recently released the Guidelines for Prevention and Control of Sexual Harassment in Shenzhen (the “Guidelines”) to guide government agencies, companies, schools and other organisations to establish a mechanism to prevent and control sexual harassment. The Guidelines specify the main types and manifestations of sexual harassment and stipulate that government agencies, companies, schools and other organisations are responsible for taking necessary preventive and handling measures to avoid the occurrence of sexual harassment.

The aforementioned organisations may be exempted from liabilities to a certain extent, depending on the circumstances, if the following measures are effectively taken to prevent sexual harassment: i) reasonable precautions have been taken to prevent sexual harassment, such as developing a system to prevent sexual harassment, introducing anti-sexual harassment reminders, etc. and ii) reasonable handling measures have been taken, such as responding promptly to any allegations of sexual harassment and taking appropriate remedial measures, in a timely manner, to stop the incident from getting worse.