The committee reviewing Taiwan’s implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) yesterday urged the nation to establish an independent national human rights institution in accordance with the Paris Principles, adding that the nation must recognize the existence and basic human rights of non-heterosexual couples.
Taiwan, though not a member of the UN, signed the CEDAW in 2007. Two years later, the government invited three experts to review its first CEDAW report.
In 2012, President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration promulgated the CEDAW Enforcement Act (消除對婦女一切形式歧視公約施行法) and produced its second status report last year.
The second report was reviewed by five experts from South Korea, the US, Philippines, Malaysia and Kenya from Monday to Wednesday, with results presented at a press conference yesterday. In addition to government officials, representatives of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and foreign embassies in Taiwan also attended the presentation.
Minister Without Portfolio Joyce Feng (馮燕) said that the experts met with more than 100 NGO representatives and about 220 from the government for the review. Review committee chairperson Heisoo Shin — a member of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights — said the CEDAW review committee listed 35 concerns and recommendations this year.
Shin said that the nationwide establishment of human rights was a recommendation made after the review of the first CEDAW report, but has yet to be realized.
“It is very important for people to bring their complaints and policy recommendations [to human rights institutions],” she said. “We know the process [of establishment] is ongoing, but an institution should be established as soon as possible. I hope there is a time frame for that.”
Shin said the committee was impressed by the more than 33,000 laws, regulations and measures that have been reviewed in the past two years in an effort to repeal discriminatory provisions. However, the nation still lacks a comprehensive law on gender equality, Shin said.
The committee also addressed family diversity. Committee member Violet Tsisiga Awori — a UN CEDAW committee member — said that the nation recognizes only heterosexual marriages, not same-sex unions or cohabiting partnerships.
“There should be legal recognition of familial diversity,” Awori said. “There are a lot of benefits for registered married heterosexual couples, but there are a lot of unions in which you have cohabiting couples or same-sex couples. We feel that something should be done in this area.”
Awori added that the nation lacks statistical data on unregistered unions.
“You need to know the number of cohabiting couples of different types to do something about it,” she said.
Shin said that many NGOs and individuals working on issues related to non-heterosexual couples came forward and said that they have faced tremendous discrimination.
She said there should be legal — and substantial ways — to recognize and protect their rights, adding that it does not mean that the laws should be changed overnight.
Denise Scotto, vice president and New York representative of the International Federation of Women in Legal Affairs, said that though Taiwan is amending its Human Trafficking Prevention Act (人口販運防制法), the amendment must be revised in accordance with international human rights laws. While international treaties also address human trafficking, she said CEDAW is the only mechanism that actually holds governments accountable by providing information in this matter.
World Bank Gender and Justice Advisor Rea Abada Chiongson said that the nation also lacks progress in developing teaching materials at all levels of schools on sexual orientation and gender identification.
Chiongson also expressed concern at the persistent gap between men and women in workforce participation, reaching as high as 33 percent in certain age groups.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching