Two child welfare groups leave for Macedonia today to represent Taiwan at the three-day 10th World Child Summit. This is the first time Taiwan has been invited to this UN-related NGO conference, officials at the Taiwan Children's Rights Association (台灣兒童?H協會) and World Vision Taiwan (台灣世界展望會) said.
Established in 1989, the World Child Summit has invited member states to join the UN Convention for Children's Rights. Yet, even though it is a non-member of the convention, Taiwan was invited for the first time by the Children's Parliament of Macedonia because of its diplomatic relations with the country, said Lai Ching-lin (賴勁麟), a DPP legislator and the president of the Taiwan Child-ren's Rights Association.
The agenda for this year's World Child Summit is the implementation of the Convention of Children's Rights in all member states. "It's also a chance to evaluate how much effort Taiwan should make in order to join the Convention," said Lai.
Lai and the Taiwan Children's Rights Association will also present a report on children's human rights in Taiwan.
Lai also said he would emphasize Taiwan's willingness to join the Convention for Children's Rights.
According to the association's report, children in Taiwan are very often exposed to danger, especially at home.
There were 4,871 child abuse cases reported to the Ministry of Internal Affairs this year, which was a 13.99 percent increase from last year.
The biggest cause of child death is accidents. Over 1,000 children were killed by accidents last year. Forty-one percent occurred at home.
According to Lai, joining the convention would have at least two benefits for Taiwan. First, he said, the convention serves to monitor the condition of child-ren's rights and thus would help in urging the government and social groups to improve child welfare.
"Second, this is an alternative diplomatic breakthrough for Taiwan," he said. "The Convention for Children's Rights is one of the few UN organizations that doesn't require UN membership.
"And because it [the convention] is a non-political group for the advancement of human rights, participation can be a positive way to make Taiwan more visible to the international community."
However, the Department of Child Welfare Affairs is less enthusiastic. The last response given by the Ministry of Interior to Lai's questions in July was that there was insufficient budget and staff to meet the requirements set out in the convention.
But interior minister Huang Chu-wen (黃主?? said he fully supported the efforts of social groups attempting to join the convention.
"This shows that there is no consensus among welfare officials," Lai said.
Apart from Lai's group, World Vision Taiwan is sending two children representatives to participate in the summit.
Hsu Hao-heng (徐皓?), 16, was chosen by World Vision to join International Care for Children in Thailand, to report on anti-child prostitution plans along with 25 children reporters from other countries.
Ko Yu-feng (
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS