The Children’s Rights Alliance Taiwan yesterday urged the government to review its standard operating procedures regarding potential child-abuse cases, following four incidents involving young children since Saturday last week.
“The home is supposed to a safe haven for children, but the alliance has been stunned by the seemingly endless reports of child-abuse cases, in which the abusers could be the child’s biological parents, grandparents or close relatives,” alliance director-general Georgie Hsieh (解慧珍) said.
Citing Ministry of Health and Welfare statistics, Hsieh said the number of child-abuse cases has increased 3.5 times over the past decade, with a total of 11,589 children physically abused last year.
Several deaths were reported over the past week, including the case of a man from Hsinchu City who allegedly smothered his one-year-old daughter to death using a towel before dumping the body in front of his estranged wife’s house.
On Tuesday, a two-year-old boy from Hsinchu died of a comminuted fracture to the head after a male relative allegedly hit his head against a wall.
His one-year-old sister is being treated in an intensive-care unit after suffering from multiple bruises, kidney failure and dehydration.
“One of the main reasons the number of child abuse incidents is increasing is a shortage of social workers, while the high turnover rates and lack of experience among child-welfare staff also plays a part,” Hsieh said.
Hsieh said that in the case involving the siblings, their mother gave birth to her first child when she was 15 years old.
Hsieh said the tragedy might have been prevented if her school and social workers had intervened to ensure the best possible arrangement for her children.
The alliance urged the government to review its procedures and unify the practices of local governments regarding the handling of children in high-risk families.
It also urged the government to increase the number of social workers by launching a long-term training program and offering overtime subsidies.
“The government should also intervene proactively in cases where a child is born to parents aged 16 or below who do not have a support system to avoid possible tragedies,” the non-government organization said.
Department of Protective Services Director Chang Hsiu-yuan (張秀鴛) said the rising number of abuse cases involving children aged six or younger suggests that there is room for improvement in the ministry’s efforts to prevent the maltreatment of children.
“Nevertheless, we urge the public to extend their concern to families with children aged younger than six who are not enrolled in schools and call the government’s 113 child-protection hotline upon learning of cases of children being mistreated,” Chang said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RSS