A coalition of civic groups yesterday called on mayoral and county commissioner candidates for the Nov. 24 nine-in-one elections to introduce platforms to protect young people from discrimination due to their sexual orientation and academic performance, and to increase their participation in politics.
At a news conference in Taipei, the Taiwan Alliance for Advancement of Youth Rights and Welfare unveiled the results of a survey it conducted among 2,100 Taiwanese aged 15 to 29.
More than 70 percent of respondents said that they had been discriminated against at some point growing up.
The 12-to-15 age group was the most likely to have been discriminated against, with 70.4 percent of respondents saying that they had fallen victim to discrimination during those years.
The two most common reasons for discrimination were academic performance and sexual orientation, or if a person’s temperament was different from gender stereotypes, the survey found.
A total of 76.1 percent of respondents said that they had been discriminated against due to their less-than-ideal grades, and 68 percent due to their sexual orientation or temperament.
About 60 percent of respondents said that the political system does not provide them with enough access to politics, while about 90 percent said the system is unfriendly toward younger people.
The respondents had a confidence level of only 40 percent with regards to politics, the survey showed.
“We would like to call upon future mayors and county commissioners to listen to what young people have to say,” said Lin Tsung-wei (林宗洧), a student representative who participated in a review of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 2016.
“The oft-made remark that students who take an active interest in politics are manipulated and are not independent thinkers, shows how unfriendly an environment it is for young people who want to enter politics,” Lin said. “This phenomenon is gradually corrupting Taiwan’s political system.”
The overwhelming majority of department heads at local governments are at least 40 years old, he said, adding that while people often say that young people are the future, they do not give them the opportunity to participate in politics.
Meanwhile, only four teachers who used corporal punishment on students were fired in the past 11 years, Humanistic Education Foundation secretary Chen Chih-yuan (陳志遠) said.
It is “absurd” that direct harm to the body and the mind, long since banned by the UN, is not acceptable when inflicted on adults, but fine when inflicted on minors, he said.
Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association vice secretary-general Peng Chih-liu (彭治鏐) said there is a great pushback against calls to improve LGBT rights, citing conservative groups in Taichung that have lobbied to obstruct the implementation of a gender equality bylaw.
He called on candidates to promise to educate the public about gender equality by advertising in the mainstream media if elected.
Minister Without Portfolio Audrey Tang (唐鳳), who attended the news conference, said that the government hopes to ameliorate discrimination by moving from a “skill-oriented” education system to a “sensibility-oriented” one, on which the curriculum guidelines for the 12-year national education system is based, to teach students that they need not be competitors, but should aim at helping each other improve.
Teachers who resort to shaming or retaliating against students should overcome any trauma they experienced when they were young or any inner conflicts that led them to believe their methods of education were right, she added.
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