The Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation yesterday urged the government to pass legislation to prevent stalking as soon as possible to care for and protect victims.
Several recent cases that began with stalking have led to death or injury because they were not handled properly, the foundation said in a statement.
A special law is needed to deal with cases of stalking, it said, adding that regulation should not be limited to the Act of Gender Equality in Employment (性別工作平等法), the Gender Equity Education Act (性別平等教育法) or the Sexual Harassment Prevention Act (性騷擾防治法).
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The National Police Agency has expressed concern that by including within the scope of stalking a range of behaviors from neighbors filing reports on each other to debt disputes, journalists taking photographs of subjects by following them and the behavior of so-called “haters” online, different versions of an anti-stalking bill proposed by lawmakers could make the police susceptible to being seen as having too much power, the foundation said.
Having a law that clearly defines stalking behavior and establishes standard operating procedures could help resolve those doubts, it said.
A warning system should be established to allow police to intervene early to prevent tragedies, it said, adding that the law should be expanded to cover a larger segment of the population.
Separately, the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) legislative caucus also called for the enactment of an anti-stalking bill as soon as possible, adding that the Executive Yuan should propose its own version of the bill to be reviewed by the Legislative Yuan.
Nearly 20,000 stalking cases are recorded each year, KMT Legislator Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) told a news conference in Taipei, adding that such incidents pose a serious threat to women.
The statements by the foundation and the KMT caucus come after a woman in Pingtung County surnamed Tseng (曾) was allegedly abducted and killed by a man surnamed Huang (黃).
Tseng had filed multiple police reports against Huang for alleged harassment and stalking.
Police need laws that allow them to intervene early on, KMT Legislator Yeh Yu-lan (葉毓蘭) said.
Lawmakers have proposed 15 versions of an anti-stalking bill, KMT Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘) said, urging the Executive Yuan to quickly submit its own version for review by the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee.
The proposed legislation must pass this legislative session, said Lin, who is a coconvener of the committee, adding that the committee is to continue reviewing proposed provisions for the bill on Thursday.
Additional reporting by Lin Liang-sheng and CNA
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS