While the passage of the Domestic Violence Prevention Act (
"The Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Prevention Committee under the Ministry of Interior [MOI] is in charge of the matter. However, the committee is not a formal or permanent unit," said Gau Fehng-shian (
"We need the government to set up a comprehensive system to take care of victims of domestic abuse, provide training for social workers and cooperate with civil groups to solve domestic violence cases," Gau added.
In many Western countries where policies to protect victims of domestic violence are more mature, local governments provide short-term shelters and long-term residential services for victims. Additionally, training workshops are run for police officers and other judicial workers.
Further, offices for the prevention of domestic violence provide counseling training for staff, and governments work with grassroots organizations to end the violence. There are also courses for male perpetrators of violence, which are aimed at modifying their behavior.
Gau said that the lack of official anti-domestic violence centers in Taiwan, a shortage of budget and manpower to deal with the issue, and the government's plan to downsize and merge government offices dealing with such issues, all hinder efforts to address domestic violence.
A draft version of the organic law of the Executive Yuan, meanwhile, proposes to downsize the MOI's Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Prevention Committee and place it under a broader bureau for women and social development.
Women and children's rights advocates said the proposal would be a setback for the rights of women and children.
Many say it will oversimplify issues affecting children, teenagers and women, as it establishes one institution and reduces the number of staff to handle the concerns of groups with widely different issues and needs.
The Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Prevention Committee currently has 15 members. The draft law proposes to cut that number to eight.
The draft bill also calls for merging the National Youth Commission and the Children's Bureau under the MOI into the department of social affairs and family services that would be placed under a to-be formed ministry of health and social security.
According to the draft, the new department would address issues such as family policies, children and youth welfare services, protection measures and health care.
Peng Shu-hua (
"Social workers in local children's protection agencies stand on the frontlines and often feel overwhelmed by the enormous pressure of handling such cases," Peng said.
"The government should invest more to recruit more social workers and offer them training courses to provide better service in protecting children and fostering youth development," Peng added.
Ensuring the safety of the country's women and children requires close cooperation between the government and non-governmental units, Peng said.
Peng also suggested that educating the public about domestic violence should be a good preventive measure.
"School education should include courses on issues of domestic violence. We need to educate the next generation that the abuse of women or children is not a family matter, but a serious crime, and it is everyone's responsibility to report the crime and protect the victims," Peng said.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
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The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift