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Alliance demands harsh rape laws

Legislators and civil groups formed an alliance yesterday to promote the amendment of sexual crime laws to bring about harsher punishment of offenders and create a more secure environment for women.

The alliance proposed amending the laws to enforce stricter parole requirements for sex-crime offenders, compelling sentenced offenders to undergo compulsory treatment while in jail, set up a monitoring mechanism within the community and adopt a system of registering and publicizing the names of offenders.

The alliance proposes that sex offenders who have assaulted children younger than 18 and those who have not undergone psychiatric treatment should not be eligible for parole. The current law does not have these restrictions.

The laws to be amended are the Criminal Code, the Law on the Execution of Prison Punishment (監獄行刑法), and the Sexual Assault Prevention Law (性侵害犯罪防治法), which all regulate the punishment of sex-crime offenders. The alliance proposes holding public hearings on its proposed amendments, and it plans to send the draft amendments to the legislature in December.

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chou Ching-yu (周清玉), who is the convener of the alliance, said the main reason behind the formation of the alliance was the widely-discussed "Hwakang Wolf" (華岡之狼) case, which highlighted women's worries over their own safety.

"The members of the alliance think that there has to be more comprehensive laws and regulations to prevent sexual crimes, otherwise the laws would become ineffective," Chou said.

Several major women's groups have joined the alliance, as well as legislators from all political stripes, including People First Party Legislator Lee Yung-ping (李永萍) and Chinese Nationalist Party Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖).

Judge Gau Fehng-shian (高鳳仙) of the Taiwan High Court, who has extensive experience in dealing with cases of sexual assault, is serving as the alliance's secretary-general.
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