China's first rule on sexual harrassment goes into effect Thursday, offering women victims a legal ground to safeguard their rights.

The rule is part of the revised Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Women adopted by the country's top legislature August 28.

"Sexual harassment against women is forbidden, " the law stipulates. It goes further to give victims the right to ask for police and court action.

This is the first time for the issue of sexual harassment to be written into Chinese law.

For a long time, sexual harassment has been regarded as a moral issue rather than a legal one in China. Of the nearly 10 sexual harassment cases that entered legal proceedings since 2001, only one plaintiff won.

Nearly 40 percent of women in private businesses and foreign-funded businesses has experienced sexual harassment, according to a survey conducted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. And most of the harassment took place in the workplace, officials said.

However, the revised law fails to give an explicit definition of sexual harassment, which was defined as "obscene behavior that is harmful, coercive and sexually provocative" by Professor Wu Changzheng, from the China University of Political Science and Law.

"It can even be verbal or facial expressions hinting sex. Such behavior infringes on the other party's dignity."

It is expected to be put into a judicial explanation of the law, revealed Professor Yang Dawen, of Renmin University and vice-chairman of the China Family and Marriage Society.

Experts cautioned that it may remain difficult for the victims to get a fair ruling when they filed sexual harassment cases in the court. "Sexual harassments, in most cases, occur in private occasions. Therefore it is hard to collect valid evidence for language or body contact," they said.

(China Daily December 1, 2005)