Dozens of members of nine human rights groups yesterday observed International Day of Persons with Disabilities with a protest in front of the Ministry of Health and Welfare in Taipei, saying that the ministry’s policy on people with disabilities fails to address obstacles they meet every day.
The protesters — about half of whom sat in wheelchairs, some of which had signs affixed to them — chanted slogans such as “I want accessible clinics,” “remove road barriers, give back the space I need to move in” and “an incomplete system leads to no autonomy” outside of the ministry’s complex in the morning.
While the legislature in 2014 passed the Act to Implement the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (身心障礙者權利公約施行法), which requires the government to protect the rights of people with disabilities as outlined in the UN’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the ministry seems to use the international observance to promote its benevolence, rather than substantially improve the lives of such people, Taiwan Gender Queer Rights Advocacy Alliance secretary-general Nelson Hu (胡勝翔) said.
The ministry used the slogan “respect differences and participate together” for the day, but people with disabilities still face a number of obstacles in different aspects of their daily lives, he said.
“We do not need people describing us as ‘angels,’ or telling us: ‘You are great and full of courage.’ We do not need fake friendliness,” Access for All Association secretary-general Hsu Chao-fu (許朝富) said. “We are not asking for ‘extra’ rights, we are only asking for protection of our human rights.”
Many people with disabilities wanted to join the protest, but could not even leave their homes or take public transportation on their own, as most accessible transportation is only available in big cities, Hsu said.
Independent Living Association Taipei secretary-general Lin Chun-chieh (林君潔), who uses a wheelchair, said road obstacles make it difficult for her to even move from one place to another in front of the ministry’s complex, adding that people with disabilities cannot have real autonomy without the enforcement of policies and a system to protect their rights.
Lin asked the protesters to throw disposable adult diapers over the complex’s gate to demonstrate their anger.
The demonstrators demanded that the ministry enforce the convention, establish a national agency to protect their rights and allow people with disabilities to participate in the making of policies related to them.
The groups said they would protest again if the ministry does not give them an acceptable reply within one month.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to