The government has decided to decriminalize prostitution but will leave the decision to set up red light districts to local governments, an official said yesterday.
The Executive Yuan's Human Rights Protection and Promotion Committee has decided to abolish Article 80 of the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法), the regulation governing sexual transactions that stipulates detention or the fining of sex workers, Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺), minister of the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (RDEC), told a press conference after a committee meeting.
Under the article, sex workers can be detained for a maximum of three days, fined up to NT$30,000 or sent to a correctional institution for a period of between six and 12 months, while customers are not subject to any punishment.
“Two years ago, several members of the committee raised the issue of inequality against sex workers, prompting the government to address the problem,” Jiang said.
At the meeting, the Ministry of the Interior and the RDEC supported the decriminalization of consensual sex between adults, based on academic research on the issue and conclusions drawn from public consultations, Jiang said.
He said that Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) had asked the ministry to propose a draft bill to manage the sex trade and sex workers within six months, saying that the abrogation of Article 80 of the Social Order Maintenance Act would only take effect when new regulations are in place.
During the transition period between now and the decriminalization of the sex trade, the government will adopt temporary measures to reduce the possibility of sex workers being punished, he said.
One of the measures will be that police officers will no longer be able to receive bonus points on their performance evaluation for arresting violators of Article 80, he said.
In response to the ministry's suggestion that red light districts should be established to better manage the sex trade, Liu was quoted by Executive Yuan Spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) as saying that he would leave the decision to local governments.
Liu said that red light districts could be established in a county or city as long as the local government obtained approval from the local council.
Whether prostitution would be allowed if it takes place outside a red light district would depend on the provisions of a new management act, Jiang said.
Also included on the agenda of yesterday's meeting was the government's position on the amendment to the Assembly and Parade Law (集會遊行法), which failed to clear the legislature in the just-concluded session because of several controversial articles branded as regressive by activists.
The amendment stipulates that organizers must register their activities in advance instead of obtaining permission from police beforehand as stipulated in the current law. Activists criticized the proposal as being too strict.
Jiang quoted Liu as saying that small-scale protests should be exempted from the registration system.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS