A sexual abuse case involving a preschool has recently been splashed all over the news media, and due to public pressure, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) bowed and apologized on Friday last week.
However, his apology and his administration’s lax handling of children’s rights issues did not receive much attention. The public’s attention has been fixed firmly on the Constitutional Court’s injunction of the legislative reform bills passed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party.
Chiang said he would do everything he could to address the issue at the preschool, but his promise would be empty if he himself has no clue as to what he should do next.
There are more than 370,000 children under the age of 18 in Taipei, accounting for 14.7 percent of the city’s population. These children, who do not have the right to vote, are essentially invisible and are completely underrepresented. Apparently, Chiang’s administration does not include children’s rights in its political outlook.
Sexual assault incidents have revealed to the public that the Taipei City Government does not have any vision of what children’s rights are. It does not even know the four principles of the Convention of the Rights of the Child: non-discrimination, the best interests of the child, the right to survival and development, and the views of the child.
In addition to providing children in Taipei a safe learning environment, another burning issue they face is high temperatures.
Global warming, combined with the urban heat island effect, has made Taipei the hottest city in Taiwan. Research suggests that 20 years ago, the temperature in downtown areas was higher than that in the suburbs by 1.5°C to 2°C, but now the difference is more than 3.5°C. The gap will only widen. Intense heat has significantly affected children’s health and learning.
However, not even weather aberrations can prompt Chiang’s administration to make policy changes.
The Taipei City Government in 2021 proposed a budget based on the experience of Oslo’s climate budgeting, but as last year’s edition showed, not one item in the NT$15 billion (US$456.79 million) budget catered to children’s needs. Of course it does not provide any solutions to the effect of climate change on children’s rights.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child at the end of last year passed General Comment No. 26. The comment emphasizes that climate change is the main issue affecting children’s rights.
The central government and local governments are responsible for responding to problems and finding ways to solve them. They should also comply with the Paris Agreement, guaranteeing children the right to climate change education.
The Executive Yuan approved the Taipei City Self-government Ordinances of Net Zero Emission Management (台北市淨零排放管理自治條例) in February. The city government was the first to launch a comprehensive policy on climate change. If necessary, it would set up a climate and transformation fund, allocating at least 10 percent to benefit under-18s. Hopefully, the city government’s actions will embody the principles and the concept of climate justice.
Taipei has had record-high temperatures of nearly 40°C, with scorchers soon to be the norm.
Nobody wants to see Chiang apologizing again for not caring about children’s rights. Apart from fixing the problems in children’s welfare, climate issues should also be high on the agenda. It is never too late.
Hsieh Ying-shih is chairman of the Environmental Quality Protection Foundation. Cheng I-chan is deputy secretary-general of the foundation.
Translated by Chen Chi-huang
Taiwan is a small, humble place. There is no Eiffel Tower, no pyramids — no singular attraction that draws the world’s attention. If it makes headlines, it is because China wants to invade. Yet, those who find their way here by some twist of fate often fall in love. If you ask them why, some cite numbers showing it is one of the freest and safest countries in the world. Others talk about something harder to name: The quiet order of queues, the shared umbrellas for anyone caught in the rain, the way people stand so elderly riders can sit, the
Taiwan’s fall would be “a disaster for American interests,” US President Donald Trump’s nominee for undersecretary of defense for policy Elbridge Colby said at his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday last week, as he warned of the “dramatic deterioration of military balance” in the western Pacific. The Republic of China (Taiwan) is indeed facing a unique and acute threat from the Chinese Communist Party’s rising military adventurism, which is why Taiwan has been bolstering its defenses. As US Senator Tom Cotton rightly pointed out in the same hearing, “[although] Taiwan’s defense spending is still inadequate ... [it] has been trending upwards
Small and medium enterprises make up the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, yet large corporations such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) play a crucial role in shaping its industrial structure, economic development and global standing. The company reported a record net profit of NT$374.68 billion (US$11.41 billion) for the fourth quarter last year, a 57 percent year-on-year increase, with revenue reaching NT$868.46 billion, a 39 percent increase. Taiwan’s GDP last year was about NT$24.62 trillion, according to the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, meaning TSMC’s quarterly revenue alone accounted for about 3.5 percent of Taiwan’s GDP last year, with the company’s
In an eloquently written piece published on Sunday, French-Taiwanese education and policy consultant Ninon Godefroy presents an interesting take on the Taiwanese character, as viewed from the eyes of an — at least partial — outsider. She muses that the non-assuming and quiet efficiency of a particularly Taiwanese approach to life and work is behind the global success stories of two very different Taiwanese institutions: Din Tai Fung and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC). Godefroy said that it is this “humble” approach that endears the nation to visitors, over and above any big ticket attractions that other countries may have
RSS