Several women’s groups criticized the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) yesterday over its plan to decriminalize the sex industry, saying that doing so would only make the country a global leader in selling the female body.
Deputy Minister of the Interior Chien Tai-lang (簡太郎) reiterated last week that decriminalizing the sex industry was the ministry’s long-term policy objective, following the release of a constitutional interpretation that said a clause in the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法) that imposes penalties on sex workers, but not their clients, was unconstitutional.
The Council of Grand Justices explained that the clause was considered unconstitutional because it violates the spirit of equality as stated in the Constitution.
Although the women’s groups welcomed the interpretation itself, most of them disagreed with the ministry’s plan, saying it “overinterpreted the interpretation.”
“Chien thinks decriminalizing the sex industry is a [global] trend, but it still remains questionable whether such a measure would effectively manage the sex industry, make it a ‘clean’ industry and economically protect disadvantaged women in the industry,” Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation executive director Kang Shu-hua (康淑華) told a press conference at the legislature yesterday.
Kang said legalizing the sex industry wouldn’t resolve all the issues associated with it, such as human trafficking and organized crime.
She said these issues did not improve when the area around Huaxi Street (華西街) in Taipei was made a red light district in 1956. Rather, the red light district simply led to more illegal prostitutes — many human trafficking victims.
While people who support the legalization of the sex industry cite examples of other countries where prostitution is legal to support their case, International Campaign to End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism-Taiwan secretary-general Lee Li-fen (李麗芬) said some of those countries have realized a legal sex industry did not solve all of the issues and were considering doing a U-turn.
“Three years after Germany inaugurated the Act Regulating the Legal Situation of Prostitutes, it has been found to be ineffective and there has been little improvement of prostitutes’ working conditions because there was lack of social consensus on the law,” Lee said. “Sex workers are too afraid to expose their true identity and therefore only a handful of sex workers have signed employment contracts with brothels or become registered, self-employed prostitutes.”
Garden of Hope Foundation executive director Chi Hui-jung (紀惠容), on the other hand, said instead of legalizing the sex industry, the government should come up with a solution to resolve the social and economic problems that result in women working as prostitutes.
“Women in the sex industry are exploited — most of the money goes into the pockets of human traffickers, madams, pimps and brothel owners,” Chi said.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Residents have called on the Taipei City Government to reconsider its plan to demolish a four-decades-old pedestrian overpass near Daan Forest Park. The 42-year-old concrete and steel structure that serves as an elevated walkway over the intersection of Heping and Xinsheng roads is to be closed on Tuesday in preparation for demolition slated for completion by the end of the month. However, in recent days some local residents have been protesting the planned destruction of the intersection overpass that is rendered more poetically as “sky bridge” in Chinese. “This bridge carries the community’s collective memory,” said a man surnamed Chuang
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm earlier today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, in this year's Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am, the CWA said. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) with a 100km radius, it said. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA meteorologist Huang En-hung (黃恩宏) said. However, a more accurate forecast would be made on Wednesday, when Yinxing is