The Children's Bureau of the Ministry of the Interior (CBI) yesterday launched a series of promotional events dealing with child abuse issues with an afternoon of children's plays and performances at the Taipei Zoo.
Yesterday's event, co-sponsored by the Taiwan Fund for Children and Families (CCF), had youngsters and parents laughing at a magician's antics despite the wind and overcast sky caused by Typhoon Mindulle.
The event was the first of five major activities the CBI is co-organizing with local non-profit organizations as part of its "Youth Protective Services Season." To address the increasing number of high-profile child abuse cases, the CBI has made this season's slogan: "Cherish the children: Stay away from abuse."
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
"Our statistics show that the reported number of child abuse cases is going up every year. We want to use these events to increase awareness among children that there are support structures around them, and encourage the public to use our 113 hotline for women and children if they suspect abuse," said bureau director Huang Pi-hsia (
According to the bureau's figures, the number of reported child abuse cases last year was 8,013. In 2002, there were 6,093 cases, and in 2001, the figure stood at 6,059.
Although the rise is partly due to increased awareness about child abuse, Huang said it was also due to higher pressures on the family system.
"Societal influences such as the high unemployment and divorce rates put parents under pressure that may lead to them abusing or neglecting their children," Huang said.
The CCF's director of programming and development in its social work department, Chou Hui-hsiang (
"When a mother who has no hope sees news about a similar case, she might get the idea to commit suicide and take her children with her, like the case she saw on the news," Chou said.
The other four activities planned are a charity carnival at Kaohsiung's Ai River Huang-chin Plaza on July 31, family games at the Taipei Zoo on Aug. 7, a carnival at the National Museum of Natural Science in Taichung on Aug. 14 and a night festival in Hualien on Sept. 4.
In addition to the four main activities, 43 civic groups have agreed to organize performances, seminars, outdoor events and film screenings across the nation to increase awareness of abuse issues.
To learn about the season's activities, see the CIB Web site at www.cib.gov.tw or call (04) 2250-2850 for more information.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods