Child health in Taiwan lags behind most developed countries, experts said yesterday.
The nation has a higher death rate among children one to nine years old than any Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) country, Taiwan Child and Youth Health Alliance convener Lu Hung-chi (呂鴻基) said at a press conference on children’s rights hosted by National Taiwan University’s Children and Family Research Center.
He added that low-weight births and youth obesity are also high compared with other developed countries.
Lu blamed the high death rate on years of underinvestment in healthcare infrastructure for children.
For example, he said, the nation has only four dedicated children’s hospitals, compared with the hundreds found in many other developed countries.
The press conference was held to mark Universal Children’s Rights Day yesterday.
The government has allocated a budget to fund a new office responsible for the convention’s implementation, Social and Family Administration Deputy Director-General Chen Su-chun (陳素春) said.
She added that the government would focus on educating the public about the convention’s content.
Even as the government moves to promote children’s rights, most mayoral candidates’ platforms are largely silent on the topic, Taiwan Convention on Rights of the Child Alliance secretary-general Lee Li-feng (李麗芬) said.
The alliance’s analysis of the platforms of 55 candidates found that, while many express support for childcare subsidies and nutritious school lunches, few make any mention of more substantial children’s rights issues, with only 13 percent making any mention of health.
At another setting, Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) announced that the nation officially implemented the convention yesterday.
The convention, which was adopted by the UN on Nov. 20, 1989, legally defines and protects children’s rights in a broad range of areas, including the right to life, health, education, safety and development.
Jiang said that the convention’s implementation has brought the nation’s children’s rights protection in compliance with international standards.
The Legislative Yuan passed the Enforcement Act of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (兒童權利公約施行法) on May 20, thereby adopting the treaty into domestic law.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday met with a group of children to mark Universal Children’s Rights Day.
Ma said that teachers and government officials should pay attention to the personal safety of children, and ensure that students receive a complete education and learn the basic knowledge they need to acquire.
Ma said that when he was Taipei mayor, all students in Taipei had to learn to swim, in light of the frequent drownings involving children and teenagers.
At present, only 55 percent of students around the country pass swimming tests on average, well below the target of 85 percent, Ma said.
Ma also pledged to address the problem of child abuse.
Last year, there were more than 16,000 reported cases of child abuse.
Although the number was 2,800 fewer than in 2012, it remained at a high level, he said.
He said that the government has been working to protect children even when they are still in their mothers’ wombs by allowing expectant mothers to take pregnancy leave.
In addition, Taiwan is one of the few nations in Asia that offers paid parental leave, he said, adding that the policy has so far benefited 250,000 parents.
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
TEMPORAL/SPIRITUAL: Beijing’s claim that the next Buddhist leader must come from China is a heavy-handed political maneuver that will fall flat-faced, experts said China’s requirement that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation to be born in China and approved by Beijing has drawn criticism, with experts at a forum in Taipei yesterday saying that if Beijing were to put forth its own Dalai Lama, the person would not be recognized by the Tibetan Buddhist community. The experts made a remarks at the two-day forum hosted by the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama titled: “The Snow Land Forum: Finding Common Ground on Tibet.” China says it has the right to determine the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, as it claims sovereignty over Tibet since ancient times,
Temperatures in some parts of Taiwan are expected to fall sharply to lows of 15°C later this week as seasonal northeasterly winds strengthen, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. It is to be the strongest cold wave to affect northern Taiwan this autumn, while Chiayi County in the southwest and some parts of central Taiwan are likely to also see lower temperatures due to radiational cooling, which occurs under conditions of clear skies, light winds and dry weather, the CWA said. Across Taiwan, temperatures are to fall gradually this week, dropping to 15°C to 16°C in the early hours of Wednesday
RSS