The Human Rights Commission is to discuss allegations of sexual assault and harassment within Bermuda Regiment at its next meeting.

Chairperson Venous Memari told The Royal Gazette the issue was on the agenda for the October 1 meeting of the HRC.

An ongoing investigation by this newspaper has uncovered 13 claims by male soldiers at Warwick Camp since 1989, as revealed on Tuesday.

The HRC is responsible for promoting the Human Rights Act 1981, section nine of which states: "No person shall abuse any position of authority which he occupies in relation to any other person employed by him or by any concern which employs both of such persons, for the purpose of harassing that other person sexually."

Ms Memari said: "We are definitely addressing this. It's on our agenda and we will address it as a matter of top priority. I think it's important for the public to know that its national human rights organisation does look at all these types of issues."

The Regiment said this week it was not aware of any allegations of a sexual nature being made since 2002. Commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Brian Gonsalves said statistics were not kept on the number of cases and it was not a problem at Warwick Camp. He said figures on allegations were "not something that the public needs to know".

Meanwhile, an abuse expert has told how reluctant male victims often are to come forward after a sexual attack — but how vital it is that they seek help.

Rosana Vickers, programme manager at the Physical Abuse Centre, said: "It's difficult for anyone to come forward. For men to come forward — it's such a challenge. However, men [in society] have come forward and talked about their being abused, maybe as children, or they have called because they want to talk to someone because someone sexually assaulted them.

"Although they may feel embarrassed, like anyone would, abuse is abuse. I think it's important that people do come forward and get help. Sometimes they go around for years holding this secret and we call [that syndrome] the forgotten victim."

Ms Vickers said she could not speak specifically on claims of abuse at Warwick Camp but added that the problem of male-on-male attacks in the wider community was bigger than most people probably realised.

"There are more people than you would imagine that are walking around where someone has interfered with them and I believe the numbers would probably be staggering if the truth be told.

"We are always talking to our little girls about touching and worrying about someone interfering with our little girls, while our little boys are being touched."

She said all organisations on the Island — whether public or private sector — ought to have trained staff able to deal with abuse allegations.

"I assume that they [the Regiment] have someone that [soldiers] can report any of this sort of abuse to," added Ms Vickers. She said victims of physical abuse can attend the centre, at 58 North Shore Road, Shelly Bay, for counselling. "There is help available," she added.

• The Physical Abuse Centre has two hot lines for victims to call: 332-1293 and 297-8278.