Following the nation’s adoption of a UN convention directed at eliminating sex discrimination, the government should take the lead in eliminating all discrimination against women, a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator said yesterday.
With the entry into force last month of the “Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women” (CEDAW), which was adopted by the UN in 1979, all government organizations should eliminate gender-based discrimination, DPP Legislator Yu Mei-nu (尤美女) said.
The CEDAW stipulates that all government organizations should establish specialized panels to oversee the implementation of the convention and also recommends the legislature establish a committee to deal with gender equality.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The CEDAW Alliance, a women’s rights organizations umbrella group, also said the government should adhere to CEDAW, pointing especially to Item One in the appendix, which states: “The five yuans are responsible for making a list of implementation measures.”
Yu said she and Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Legislator Lin Shih-chia (林世嘉) will propose an amendment to the Organic Law of Committees of the Legislative Yuan (立法院各委員會組織法) to require that at least one-third of the legislative committee conveners are women.
The legislature currently has eight standing committees, and under the Organic Law of Committees of the Legislative Yuan, each committee appoints two conveners, elected by members of that committee for each sitting.
In other words, the amendment would stipulate that of a total of 16 conveners, at least six must be women.
At present only the Executive Yuan has a Gender Equality Committee, and Yu urged the other yuans to follow suit, adding that she had already sent a proposal to Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) on the establishment of a Gender Equality Committee.
The committee would evaluate how laws and budgets would impact gender equality issues and give these evaluations to legislators for reference.
Yu said that Wang had told her he would give the proposal to staff members for further study.
National Union of Taiwan Women’s Associations secretary-general Ho Pi-chen (何碧珍) also said that civilian gender equality groups were urging all five yuans to establish CEDAW oversight committees as soon as possible, adding that the Legislative Yuan should inspect whether any laws violate CEDAW.
The Examination Yuan should also include CEDAW-related material in national examinations and the Executive Yuan’s Gender Equality Committee should be tasked with managing national reports on CEDAW-related matters, she said.
Translated by Jake Chung, Staff Writer
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
RSS