Minister of Health and Welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元) yesterday mooted an evaluation of a possible domestic violence disclosure scheme after a lawmaker suggested Taiwan needed its own version of “Clare’s law.”
The Ministry of Health and Welfare could conduct a trial to test the viability of adopting such regulations, Hsueh said, which would facilitate disclosing a person’s history of abusive behavior to those who might be at risk.
Hsueh made the comment during a joint session of the legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee and the Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee.
Photo: CNA
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) asked the ministry to clarify its position on allowing the government to disclose a person’s history of domestic abuse to a spouse or intimate partner.
The scheme is utilized in the Australia, Canada and the UK to apparent good effect, Su said.
Hsueh told lawmakers that the ministry is willing to try the scheme on a small scale to evaluate it, but would not back any immediate legislative action.
The ministry could not draw up new regulations or policies without first consulting other agencies, local governments and advocacy groups at public hearings, he said.
While it appears advantageous to allow people to check the domestic abuse history of their partners, the information might not be sufficient to get people who might be hurt to leave an abusive relationships, he said.
Moreover, the government would need time to devise a mechanism to enable disclosures if a trial showed the plan to be effective, Hsueh said.
Su agreed to withdraw parts of proposed amendments to the Domestic Violence Prevention Act (家庭暴力防治法) and passed a resolution calling on the ministry to conduct a trial of domestic abuse disclosures.
Reported incidents of domestic abuse have increased in Taiwan for the past 12 years, which suggests additional measures are needed, the resolution said.
A Taiwanese version of Clare’s law might help prevent serial abusers from finding new partners to victimize, it said, adding that the ministry should investigate why such cases have increased.
The committees approved amendments to the act to deal with videos with sexual content, and images created or disseminated without consent, as well as changes to restraining orders.
The proposed changes would ban the replication, distribution, display and any other action to disseminate such videos and images.
Social media platforms, app companies and Internet service providers would be made responsible for removing sexual videos and images taken or disseminated without consent, the proposed amendments say.
Commercial entities would be required to keep data from accounts that post such material for 180 days to facilitate investigations, the draft changes say.
Prosecutors would be able to request extensions or modifications to a restraining order without canceling the existing restraining order, as they are currently required to do, the proposed amendments say.
Courts would not need to dismiss a restraining order when considering requests to extend or amend it, as is currently required, they say.
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