Sunita Danuwar of Nepal yesterday won the Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award, which was presented to her by the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy at a ceremony in Taipei, in recognition of her dedication to rescuing female victims of human trafficking.
Once a sex slave, Danuwar is now president of Shakti Samuha, a non-governmental organization in Nepal that provides shelter, legal aid, vocational training and counseling to survivors of human trafficking.
The award was presented to Danuwar by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) at the ceremony on International Human Rights Day.
Photo: EPA
In an address at the ceremony, Ma praised Danuwar’s unrelenting efforts to rescue female victims of human trafficking, saying she has also helped raise awareness of the problem.
Danuwar has built a good reputation at home and abroad, going from a victim to an activist for women’s rights, Ma said.
The annual market value of human trafficking and child prostitution is estimated at tens of billions of US dollars, Ma said, adding that the efforts to combat the problem must continue.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Taiwan is willing to work jointly with the international community to fight human trafficking, which is a blight on human civilization, he said.
The annual Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award was established by the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy in 2006 to recognize individuals or organizations in Asia that have made significant contributions to promoting democracy and advancing human rights through peaceful means.
Funded mainly by the government, the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy is a non-profit organization in Taipei that aims to promote democracy and support the improvement of human rights conditions.
Photo: CNA
OVERHAUL NEEDED: The government should improve its agricultural processing capabilities and expand to new markets to limit its reliance on China, an expert said China’s ban on Taiwanese pineapples was “unsurprising,” and Taiwan should have years ago altered its produce export strategies and target customers, experts said. China on Friday abruptly suspended imports of pineapples from Taiwan, saying that it had on multiple occasions discovered “harmful biological entities” on the fruit. Calling it an “unfriendly” move, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said that 99.79 percent of the pineapples sent to China since last year have met China’s import standards. Chiao Chun (焦鈞), the author of Fruits and Politics — A Recollection of Cross-strait Agricultural Interaction Over the Past Decade (水果政治學：兩岸農業交流十年回顧與展望), said that China’s announcement is clearly targeting
The Council of Agriculture yesterday signed a Taiwan-Australia Agricultural Cooperation Implementation clause to open a new export market for the nation’s pineapple crop. The clause is an addition to existing cooperation measures, it said. China on Friday last week abruptly announced that it would suspend pineapple imports from Taiwan starting on Monday, on grounds that it had on multiple occasions discovered “harmful organisms” in shipments of the fruit. The public and private sectors have since joined hands to purchase the local fruit to help the nation’s pineapple farmers. Canberra has requested that all pineapples for export to Australia have their crown buds removed,
DECADES OF INFLUENCE: Over the past 20 years, China has made inroads with Aborigines, funding political campaigns and trips, a legislator said Lawmakers have called on the National Security Bureau to investigate claims of pervasive Chinese influence among Aboriginal communities. Legislators pointed to a surge in communist propaganda and Chinese-funded projects over the past few years, which they say are aimed at infiltrating and buying political influence among Aboriginal communities. “China has for decades carried out wide-ranging ‘united front’ tactics and propaganda campaigns targeting Aborigines,” said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Ying (陳瑩), a member of the Puyuma community in Taitung County. “Now, they are influencing elections for local councilors and village chiefs, offering money for candidates to mount their campaigns, and to
Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group might have lost its right to distribute the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for COVID-19 and the ability to fulfill a contract in Taiwan, civic groups Taiwan Citizen Front and the Economic Democracy Union said yesterday. In a radio interview on Feb. 17, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), head of the Central Epidemic Command Center, said that last year, Taiwan was close to signing a contract to buy doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, but that the deal was halted at the last moment, with some speculating that Chinese interference was to blame. On Monday last week, the center
RSS