Taiwan is committed to protecting human rights and incorporating the principles of the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) into domestic laws, even though the nation cannot attend official UN meetings, Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said yesterday.
Chen made the remarks at the opening ceremony of a five-day conference in Taipei, at which five international experts are meeting with representatives from both inside and outside the government to review a third report on Taiwan’s compliance with the CEDAW.
South Korean academic Heisoo Shin is chairperson of the committee that also comprises four other experts who used to be members of the UN CEDAW committee.
In 2007, Taiwan signed the convention voluntarily, and the Legislative Yuan in 2011 enacted the convention, which came into force in 2012.
Following reports in 2009 and 2014, the third report would demonstrate the nation’s key achievements in promoting women’s rights over the past years, Chen said.
The nation in 2015 amended the Employment Service Act (就業服務法) to offer governmental subsidies and assistance to women returning to the workforce, and that year also amended the Domestic Violence Prevention Act (家庭暴力防治法) to protect victims from violence committed by intimate partners, he said.
To promote gender equality, the Council of Grand Justices last year issued Constitutional Interpretation No. 748, ruling that the parts of the Civil Code (民法) rendering same-sex marriages illegal are unconstitutional, and that an amendment legalizing same-sex marriage should be written into the law within two years, Chen said, adding that this improves the protection of women’s rights.
During the meeting, committee member Niklas Bruun, a law professor from Finland, said that the nation has been slow to launch a bill to prevent all forms of discrimination and asked whether officials have the resolve to do so.
In response, Minister Without Portfolio Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成), leader of the official delegation, said the government has garnered increasing support for such a bill, but that the legislation requires a comprehensive review.
Bruun also quoted representatives from outside the government as saying that some judges considered the nation’s enactment of the CEDAW as unconstitutional, although the Judicial Yuan representative said that they had not heard such comments and that judges were increasingly quoting the convention in their verdicts.
Other committee members asked the nation to more carefully define “gender” and to pay more attention to disadvantaged women, especially the physically and mentally challenged.
Following yesterday’s meeting, the committee is to hold close-door sessions tomorrow and on Thursday, before sharing their recommendations with the nation on Friday.
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