The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a proposed amendment to the Civil Code that would prohibit parents from harming the mental and physical health of their children when disciplining them.
Article 1085 of the Civil Code stipulates that parents may, within the limit of necessity, punish their children. The article is widely perceived as a legal basis that establishes the right of parents to punish their children.
The amendment proposed by the Ministry of Justice would delete the statement and change it to: “Parents should protect and raise underage children by considering their age and mental development and respecting their character. They must not engage in violent behaviors that harm mental and physical health.”
Photo: Chung Li-hua, Taipei Times
The proposed changes face further deliberation in the legislature.
The ministry said it consulted Article 19 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Control Yuan’s National Human Rights Commission, adding that the wording of the proposed amendment is in line with similar statutes that Japan and South Korea passed in the past few years.
The purpose of the proposed change is to clarify the principle that parents should follow when they exercise their right to discipline their children, the ministry said, adding that supporting measures would be stipulated in the Protection of Children and Youths Welfare and Rights Act (兒童及少年福利與權益保障法).
Minister Without Portfolio Lin Min-hsin (林明昕) said that courts in multiple cases have established that parents must not harm their children’s mental and physical health when disciplining them, a “red line” that parents must not cross.
The judicial system and parental education policies would not change significantly because of the proposed amendment, Lin said.
The proposal is not intended to prohibit parental discipline of their children, Department of Protective Services Deputy Director Kuo Tsai-jung (郭彩榕) said.
“We hope that they would adopt a more positive approach,” Kuo said.
The Ministry of Education said that parents can seek advice at family education centers across the country.
They can also consult the ministry’s family education Web site at https://familyedu.moe.gov.tw or call the family education hotline on (02) 412-8185, the education ministry added.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS