The Control Yuan on Thursday ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to tackle sexual harassment, following accusations by two Control Yuan members that the ministry had failed to handle an allegation against one of its diplomats.
The Control Yuan on July 18 approved an investigative report after the pair filed allegations against a male diplomat surnamed Huang (黃), Control Yuan members Fan Sun-lu (范巽綠) and Lin Wen-cheng (林文程) said in a statement.
A person, who has since left the foreign service, on Facebook last year accused Huang of sending them nude photographs and inappropriate text messages while they were both posted in Geneva from 2017 to 2018, the report said.
Photo: Hsieh Chun-lin, Taipei Times
The person, identified as “A,” had reported Huang several times to one of her superintendents, but no action was taken to stop the alleged harassment, it said.
The ministry only began its own investigation after “A” left the foreign service and went public with the incident, it said.
The ministry investigation concluded that sexual harassment had taken place, but that it had happened outside working hours and outside Taiwan, the Control Yuan said.
The ministry cited the Sexual Harassment Prevention Act’s (性騷擾防治法) stipulation that a complaint must be filed within 365 days of the most recent incident, but the accusation by “A” was filed five years after the alleged incidents, the Control Yuan said.
Huang was not punished, it said.
The Control Yuan members accused the ministry of failing to properly deal with the situation, especially given the possibility that other people were targeted.
It also failed to investigate the allegations, despite other foreign service staff having been aware of Huang’s conduct for a long time, the Control Yuan report said.
Fan and Lin called on the ministry to thoroughly review how it handles similar investigations and to ensure that the rights of victims are better protected.
The ministry said that it respects the Control Yuan report.
It pledged, without providing details, that it would make adjustments and continue its efforts to prevent and tackle sexual harassment in the workplace by allowing employees to report alleged misconduct more easily.
The Control Yuan has made several accusations of negligence against the ministry over its handling of sexual harassment allegations in the past few months.
In June, it found the ministry negligent in its handling of allegations against former representative to the Philippines Michael Hsu (徐佩勇) during his time in Manila in 2022 and last year.
Last month, the Control Yuan impeached former representative to Thailand Chuang Suo-hang (莊碩漢) for sexually harassing a female subordinate.
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