The government needs to do more to prevent domestic violence, campaigners said yesterday as the Ministry of the Interior celebrated the 10th anniversary of the implementation of the Domestic Violence Law (家暴法).
“I tried not to say anything at first when I became a victim of domestic violence, because I wanted to keep my family together,” Lee Ping (李冰), a former victim of domestic violence, said at the event.
“But the more I tolerated it, the more severe the violence became,” she said.
What was more painful, Lee said, was her ex-husband beating her child.
“Finally we were divorced, but at the time people had no idea about protecting victims of domestic violence, so the court assigned guardianship of my child to the father,” she said, in tears.
“My child continued to get beaten, but didn’t dare tell anyone,” Lee said.
All that changed after June 24, 1998.
“On June 24, 1998, Taiwan became the first country in Asia to adopt a law against domestic violence. That’s something we’re proud of,” Minister of the Interior Liao Liao-yi (廖了以) said.
“During the past 10 years, we set up the 113 nationwide domestic violence hotline, established a single window through which cases are reported and coordinated efforts from the judiciary, police and health, education and social welfare authorities,” he said.
“We also trained police officers in dealing with domestic violence and set up legal assistance centers for victims at courts,” the minister said.
Although they lauded the government’s efforts, civic group members said more improvements were needed.
“Spending more on domestic violence prevention and victim protection is not really spending, it’s making an investment,” said Chou Ching-yu (周清玉), chairwoman of the Taiwan Coalition Against Violence and a member of the Executive Yuan’s Commission for Promotion of Women’s Rights.
“At the moment, social workers are outsourced. They’re paid little and have no chance for promotion in the civil service system,” Chou said.
“We need to respect their professionalism and give them places in the civil service system to keep them,” she said.
Meanwhile, Chou suggested that there should be a high-level government agency in charge of handling domestic violence cases and coordination of different Cabinet departments.
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
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday established a friendship group with their counterparts in Ukraine to promote parliamentary exchanges between the two countries. A ceremony in Taipei for the Taiwan-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Association, initiated by DPP Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷), was attended by lawmakers and officials, including Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) and European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan Director Lutz Gullner. The increasingly dire situation in Ukraine is a global concern, and Taiwan cannot turn its back when the latter is in need of help, as the two countries share many common values and interests,