Abuse of women and children in Taiwan is serious and apparently a growing problem, the US State Department reported on Tuesday.
In its annual report on human rights violations around the world, the State Department described abuse of women, including domestic violence and rape, in Taiwan "a serious problem." It said child abuse "continues to be a widespread and growing problem."
The 15-page section of the human rights report gave Taiwan good grades overall for its human rights record and said Taiwan "authorities generally respected the human rights of citizens."
But it found lurid exceptions to that in the way society treats women and children.
As of November last year, it said, 61,508 cases of domestic violence had been reported, a 9 percent increase over 2004.
However, only 2,038 people were prosecuted for violence against spouses and only 1,527 were convicted.
Typically, jail sentences were less than six months.
"Strong social pressure not to disgrace their families discouraged abused women from reporting incidents to the police," the report said.
Rape, including spousal rape, remained a serious problem, but the report added that women's rights activists had criticized law enforcement agencies for bringing "only a small percentage of perpetrators to justice."
Of the 6,601 rape and sexual abuse reports filed with the Ministry of Interior (MOI) last year, prosecutors tried 1,825 cases and convicted 1,535 individuals.
Convicted rapists were generally given terms of five to 10 years in prison.
"Experts estimated that the total number of rapes was 10 times the number reported to the police," the report said.
Despite laws banning gender discrimination in the workplace, the report nevertheless found numerous instances of discrimination.
"Despite the law, women continued to be denied maternity leave or were forced to quit jobs due to marriage, age, or pregnancy. Women's advocates noted that women continue to be promoted less frequently, occupied fewer management positions and worked for lower pay than their male counterparts," the report said.
The Council of Labor Affairs estimated that women salaries were 85 percent that of their male counterparts for comparable jobs.
The report also focused on mistreatment and discrimination against foreign spouses, many of whom are brought to Taiwan through brokers whose advertisements "were frequently degrading to women."
For fees ranging from US$7,000 to US$10,000, brokers fly clients to Southeast Asian cities where they can choose from groups of "eligible" women.
"Several reports suggested that this commercialized process likened foreign spouses to property and contributed to their mistreatment," the report said.
Traffickers in spouse visas also bring many women to Taiwan for prostitution, the report added.
Trafficking for prostitution involved mostly Vietnamese, Indonesian and Thai women, the report said, adding that arrests of women from China, Hong Kong and Macau had "declined sharply during the year."
Child abuse in Taiwan jumped 26 percent from 2004 to 2005 and appeared to have climbed 25 percent during last year, MOI statistics showed. Ninety percent of abusers were parents, relatives or caregivers.
Through last September, 9,984 cases of child abuse had been reported, including cases of physical, mental or sexual abuse or harm resulting from guardian neglect, the State Department report said.
The report also cited cases of widespread discrimination and abuse against foreign workers.
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