The Senate has passed the Sexual Harassment Bill, 2020 (SB. 77), sponsored by the Deputy President of the Senate, Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege and co-sponsored by 106 senators.
This followed the clause-by-clause consideration of the Report of the Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters.
The bill was read for the first time on October 9, 2019, and scaled through Second Reading on November 6, 2019.
The bill seeks to prohibit sexual harassment of students in tertiary institutions; criminalise the act of neglect or failure of administrative heads of tertiary educational institutions to address complaints of sexual harassment within a specified period of time.
The bill also seeks to create a strict liability offence by removing mutual consent, as a defence in the prosecution of sexual harassment cases in tertiary educational institutions as well as maintain and sustain the fiduciary relationship that exists between educators and students with the aim of making tertiary institutions in the country conducive centres of learning and moral rectitude.
