Amendments to three laws to curb sexual harassment are to be reviewed at a Cabinet meeting tomorrow and could undergo a third reading at the legislature before the end of this month, Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said yesterday.
Minister Without Portfolio Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) has been meeting with officials from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Ministry of Education and other agencies to review the amendments to the Act of Gender Equality in Employment (性別平等工作法), the Gender Equity Education Act (性別平等教育法) and the Sexual Harassment Prevention Act (性騷擾防治法), Chen said.
“They are in the final stage of polishing the wording. I am confident the amendments will be successfully approved at the Cabinet meeting,” Chen told reporters on the sidelines of an event to celebrate the National Applied Research Laboratories’ 20th anniversary.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“We hope to establish an effective, friendly and trustworthy mechanism, and increase the budget to protect victims of sexual harassment and hold perpetrators accountable,” Chen said. “We also hope that the legislature can deliberate over these amendments during the extraordinary session and pass them before the end of this month.”
Women’s rights advocates also proposed their own versions of amendments.
Modern Women’s Foundation board director Wang Ju-hsuan (王如玄) said that people often have difficulty distinguishing which law applies to their situation.
People affected by incidents covered in the Act of Gender Equality in Employment and Gender Equity Education Act cannot file complaints based on the Sexual Harassment Prevention Act, Wang said.
“Such a distinction does not make any sense. As such, we propose that the Sexual Harassment Prevention Act should apply to those whose situations are covered in the Act of Gender Equality in Employment and Gender Equity Education acts,” she said. “This would be an effective way to hold perpetrators accountable.”
In other news, Chen said that amendments to the Statute of Open Prisons (外役監條例) would also be reviewed at the legislature’s extraordinary session next week.
“We have discussed this matter with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who also thinks the amendments could be more intensively and thoroughly deliberated at the legislature,” he said. “So far, 25 legislators have proposed their own versions of amendments, in addition to the one proposed by the Executive Yuan. We hope that lawmakers can quickly reach a consensus from such a wide range of opinions and pass the bills.”
The prison rule amendments would make it more difficult for prisoners to be transferred to minimum-security facilities after a man surnamed Yi (易), who was imprisoned for killing a police officer, in March last year was transferred to a minimum-security facility, sparking an outcry among police who said that the show of leniency was not fair to the slain officer.
Additional reporting by CNA
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