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Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chao Li-yun (趙麗雲) accused the High Court judges of having an “outdated mindset,” adding that the justice system must be more flexible and evolve over time.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.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
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DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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