The government should not wait for another International Women’s Day to implement legislation against stalking and harassment, which should have already been promulgated to help people living in fear, the New Power Party (NPP) said yesterday.
Aside from drafting a bill, the NPP has also proposed amendments to Article 89 of the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法) to stipulate heavier fines for people convicted of stalking.
NPP Chairwoman Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) said that the proposed amendment would list types of behavior that should be subject to punishment.
Photo: CNA
The fine for those found guilty of such behavior should be raised from NT$3,000 to NT$12,000, Chen said.
“We urge the Executive Yuan to quickly propose its version of the anti-stalking and harassment act, as this is the fundamental solution to curb these offenses,” she said.
Taiwan has not made any progress creating legislation against stalkers and harassers in the past few years, NPP caucus whip Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) said.
“We hope that lawmakers who were elected or re-elected last year would complete such legislation before their terms end in 2024,” Chiu said.
There are 15 versions of a draft act proposed by lawmakers in the past year, including the one proposed by the NPP, Chiu said, adding that this shows lawmakers have reached a consensus on the importance of such legislation.
While the government last year recorded more than 7,600 cases involving stalking, harassment or pestering, the Criminal Code, the social order act and the Domestic Violence Prevention Act (家庭暴力防治法) leave little room for police to intervene, making it necessary to stipulate a specific law to curb such offenses, Chiu said.
Japan passed its Anti-Stalking Act in 2000, while the German Act on Protection Against Violence — promulgated in 2001 — lays down clear rules for protecting people from stalking, Chiu said.
“In many cases, victims were followed and harassed before they were murdered. We hope that an anti-stalking and harassment act would be quickly stipulated to save people from living in fear, and protect them from physical harm,” he said.
NPP Legislator Claire Wang (王婉諭) said that behavior that constitutes stalking or harassment should be based on subjective perceptions of the victims — whether they have caused fear or prevented them from living a normal life — as well as actions common among stalkers.
Identifying behavioral patterns among people convicted of such offenses would help the government form a more comprehensive set of measures to protect people, she said.
The NPP proposes three levels of intervention available for people targeted by stalking, Wang said.
The first is to allow people to apply for a warning to be issued to an alleged perpetrator, which would be issued by police within 72 hours; the second is an ordinary restraining order, which would be issued by a court; and the third would be if a court deems that an intervention is urgent and necessary, it would be able to issue an emergency restraining order, ensuring faster, more comprehensive and effective protection,” she said.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
RSS