The Ministry of the Interior yesterday defended the government's efforts in protecting human rights after the US State Department's annual report on the subject said little progress had been made here.
While the report credits Taiwan with actively promoting democracy through elections, it said that issues such as women's rights, child abuse and smuggling, police abuse and labor rights had been poorly monitored.
The report, which details the human-rights situation in every country except the US, was released on Monday.
"We have done a lot about these issues," said Lin Wei-yan (林維言), a Ministry of the Interior official in charge of promoting women's rights. "But we have to admit that the effectiveness of these measures has not yet become apparent."
Lin Tzu-ling (林慈玲), secretary-general of the Sexual Harassment Prevention Council, argued that the report was vague on what the government had done or failed to do.
"They never asked for information, so how can they be critical on such issues without properly understanding them?" Lin said.
The National Police Administration argued that it had done a lot to protect human rights, saying that it had stopped abusing suspects in criminal investigations several years ago.
Human right groups, however, suggested the report's conclusions were likely justified.
John Wei (
"If we really want to catch up with developed countries regarding these issues, we have to provide human-rights education to students, the media, civil servants, lawyers, judges, the police and prosecutors," Wei said.
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