Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate and New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), and Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) candidate, have agreed to the demands made by six civic groups regarding gender-based violence prevention, a statement by the groups released yesterday said.
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) has yet to respond, the statement said.
The demands included establishing a dedicated office responsible for leading the way in tackling gender-based violence and a research institution to spearhead investigation of the issue; setting milestones and goals to be reviewed regularly; carrying out investigations into digital gender-based violent crimes and providing support for victims of such crimes.
The statement labeled these policies as “investments in preventing gender-based violence.”
The civic groups lauded Hou for signing the demands and expressed hope that his campaign office would publish its commitments on its social media pages, and that he would ensure the pledges were kept.
The statement said that although Lai had not directly signed the demands, he had responded through the DPP’s policy department.
However, the groups raised concerns about the DPP’s proposal to establish cross-department communication facilitated by the Executive Yuan’s Gender Equality Committee, as it could lack the ability to integrate and communicate with the other departments, the statement added.
Meanwhile, Ko has not only kept silent on gender equality issues during his campaign, but, as of Wednesday, just three days before the election, he had also failed to respond to the groups’ demands, the statement said.
The groups asked how a presidential candidate could promise to protect the public while showing indifference to gender-based violence, the statement added.
The demands were made after a coalition of 28 civic groups revealed the “disappointing” answers given by Taiwan’s main political parties in a gender-equality policy questionnaire last month, the statement said.
Ahead of Taiwan electing a new president tomorrow, the civic groups called for the future president-elect and all the parties to work on preventing gender-based violence and to boost support given to victims to ensure a safer living environment for everybody, the statement said.
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