The Ministry of the Interior will continue to work to improve human rights conditions in the country, especially in areas that the public finds unsatisfactory, Interior Minister Lee Yi-yang (
Lee was responding to the Taipei-based Chinese Association for Human Rights, which recently published its annual survey of the nation's human rights conditions.
The association's survey covered the views of ordinary citizens as well as "social elites" and "opinion leaders."
More than half of the respondents in the former category were positive about the overall rights conditions this year. They gave the highest rating to the conditions of women and the elderly, but added that "economic human rights" saw the biggest decline.
For "social elite", cultural and educational rights received the best rating, followed by judicial and economic rights, while protection for the elderly and physically and mentally challenged received the worst rating.
Lee said that increases in the indices for women's rights were probably the result of efforts by the government and the private sector in recent years in promoting women's rights.
On the slight decrease in the perceived personal safety of women, Lee said respondents may have thought that the government could not provide long-term or comprehensive assistance in cases involving domestic violence, sex crimes or harassment.
Since the Domestic Violence Prevention Act (
The ministry would continue to strengthen training of professionals to upgrade protection of victims of domestic violence, he said.
On the rights of physically and mentally challenged people, Lee said that the ministry was promoting community care to make sure these people enjoyed equal rights to schooling and employment as well as the right to choose a place of residence.
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