A women’s group and lawmakers yesterday were enraged by a Taiwan High Court ruling the previous day that acquitted a man of sexual harassment for holding a female subordinate at the shoulder and waist.
The court failed to take into consideration the female victim’s feelings, Modern Women’s Foundation executive director Yao Shu-wen (姚淑文) said.
On Tuesday, the court ruled in favor of a man surnamed Chang (張) in the second trial of a sexual harassment case.
Chang, 36 and married, was accused by a subordinate surnamed Hu (胡) of twice placing his hand on her shoulders and then putting hands around her waist for 10 seconds during an employees’ gathering at a pub in February 2008.
Feeling violated, Hu later filed a complaint with her company and filed a lawsuit against Chang at the Hsinchu District Court.
The district court found Chang guilty of sexual harassment and sentenced him to 40 days’ detention on the grounds that his actions constituted “touching another’s hips, breasts or other private body parts before one can resist,” as stipulated in the Sexual Harassment Prevention Act (性騷擾防治法).
The High Court, however, overturned the lower court’s ruling in the second trial, saying that as women often expose their shoulders or waist in summertime, shoulders and waists should not be considered private body parts like breasts, hips and genitalia. As the defendant did not touch those private parts, his actions did not constitute sexual harassment, the High Court said. Tuesday’s verdict was final.
Yao Shu-wen (姚淑文), executive director of the Modern Women’s Foundation, which promoted the enactment of the act four years ago, said the waist was a sensitive body part for women.
Women do not allow men to touch their waists unless they are in a relationship, she said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chao Li-yun (趙麗雲) accused the High Court judges of having an “outdated mindset,” adding that the justice system must be more flexible and evolve over time.
She said she was concerned the verdict might have a negative impact on the public’s definition of sexual harassment.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Sue-ying (黃淑英), a member of the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee, said judges must take a defendant’s intent and a victim’s feelings into account when determining whether a move constitutes sexual harassment.
SLOW-MOVING STORM: The typhoon has started moving north, but at a very slow pace, adding uncertainty to the extent of its impact on the nation Work and classes have been canceled across the nation today because of Typhoon Krathon, with residents in the south advised to brace for winds that could reach force 17 on the Beaufort scale as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast that the storm would make landfall there. Force 17 wind with speeds of 56.1 to 61.2 meters per second, the highest number on the Beaufort scale, rarely occur and could cause serious damage. Krathon could be the second typhoon to land in southwestern Taiwan, following typhoon Elsie in 1996, CWA records showed. As of 8pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 180km
TYPHOON DAY: Taitung, Pingtung, Tainan, Chiayi, Hualien and Kaohsiung canceled work and classes today. The storm is to start moving north this afternoon The outer rim of Typhoon Krathon made landfall in Taitung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) at about noon yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, adding that the eye of the storm was expected to hit land tomorrow. The CWA at 2:30pm yesterday issued a land alert for Krathon after issuing a sea alert on Sunday. It also expanded the scope of the sea alert to include waters north of Taiwan Strait, in addition to its south, from the Bashi Channel to the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島). As of 6pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 160km south of
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RULES BROKEN: The MAC warned Chinese not to say anything that would be harmful to the autonomous status of Taiwan or undermine its sovereignty A Chinese couple accused of disrupting a pro-democracy event in Taipei organized by Hong Kong residents has been deported, the National Immigration Agency said in a statement yesterday afternoon. A Chinese man, surnamed Yao (姚), and his wife were escorted by immigration officials to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, where they boarded a flight to China before noon yesterday, the agency said. The agency said that it had annulled the couple’s entry permits, citing alleged contraventions of the Regulations Governing the Approval of Entry of People of the Mainland Area into the Taiwan Area (大陸地區人民進入台灣地區許可辦法). The couple applied to visit a family member in