According to two social service groups, 91 percent of Taiwanese people support legislation that covers instances of sexual harassment such as groping and giving unwanted kisses. Legislators and government officials, meanwhile, disagreed over who should be responsible for investigating sexual harassment cases.
The survey of 1,093 adults across the country was sponsored by the all-female Pei-An Rotary Club in Taipei (
Members of the two groups are among activists who are pushing for the passing of the Sexual Harassment Prevention Bill (
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
Judge Gau Fehng-shian (
"If this bill is passed, legal definitions of sexual harassment and unwelcome groping will be established. Further, comprehensive resources will be made available to victims and a penal code for offenders will be put in place," Gau said at a public forum yesterday at the Legislative Yuan.
Earlier this week, a new draft of the bill was introduced by a number of female legislators from various political parties. The legislators included Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chou Ching-yu (
According to the draft, the Ministry of Interior would set up a sexual harassment committee to conduct mediation between victims and offenders in cases of sexual harassment as well as to provide healthcare resources for victims.
Remarking on the possibility of a setting up a specialized unit to investigate cases of sexual harassment, Lin Tsyr-ling (
"Our committee's staff has been working on sex-related offenses for a long time and experience tells us that offenders simply do not admit to their offenses, so conducting mediations would be problematic. Besides, the ministry will be short-staffed if every sexual harassment case needs to be investigated personally," Lin said.
Lin said that no other developed countries had put authority for such an investigative unit directly under a government body responsible for social policies, as sexual harassment cases may involve legal, labor, academic or other issues.
In 1999, the Modern Women's Foundation (
The Executive Yuan decided to dismiss the Sexual Harassment Prevention Bill because the draft did not define the venues in which offenses covered under the bill might take place, as was the Gender Equality Labor Law, which includes regulations pertaining to workplace sexual harassment.
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if the next president of that country decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said today. “We would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said during a legislative hearing. At the same time, Taiwan is paying close attention to the Central American region as a whole, in the wake of a visit there earlier this year by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Lin said. Rubio visited Panama, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Guatemala, during which he
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