The cabinet wants sex education lessons to be adapted so that children learn to recognize and monitor their own limits at an early stage. To tackle sexually transgressive behavior, it is also considering forcing every company to appoint a counselor.
In addition, all employers should be obliged to draw up a code of conduct to combat undesirable behaviour. The cabinet wants to include these measures in a national action plan to tackle sexually transgressive behaviour, it writes in a letter to parliament in which the ‘contours’ of that plan are outlined.
Mariëtte Hamer, who started as government commissioner for sexually transgressive behavior at the beginning of April, has been inundated with ‘cries for help about harrowing and traumatizing events’ and advice over the past three months. According to the cabinet, these ‘experiences and stories’ underline ‘the urgency of an ambitious national action plan’, which must be completed in the autumn.
There is no definition yet
Even so, it appears that three months after Hamers took office, the cabinet is still pondering the question of what the definition of sexually transgressive behavior is. This summer, the cabinet will therefore enter into discussions with experts by experience, scientists and young people ‘to collect knowledge and recommendations’. In this way, the cabinet hopes to arrive at ‘social norms’: a shared picture of how we want to interact with each other. Those standards must therefore be anchored in laws and regulations, so that it becomes clear to everyone what is and what is not permissible.
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Society must also be educated in what a healthy relationship is, how wishes and boundaries can be indicated and that consent is important. The government also wants people to intervene if they witness ‘everyday situations’ in which ‘everyone feels that they are actually crossing the line’. Now bystanders still look away too often.
Hamer must bring about a culture change, said the most responsible ministers Robbert Dijkgraaf (Emancipation) and Karien van Gennip (Social Affairs and Employment) when she took office. The special government commissioner, who the cabinet calls ‘unique in the world’, was appointed in the wake of the scandal at The Voice† According to the cabinet, many countries are watching Hamer’s work with interest.
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