A coalition of civic organizations yesterday called for amendments to the Civil Code to lower the nation’s legal age of adulthood from 20 to 18.
The Taiwan Alliance for Advancement of Youth Rights and Welfare, National Taiwan University Student Association, and Taiwan Youth Association for Democracy said they would establish an “Amend the Civil Code for the Youth Front” to accentuate their joint appeal.
The legal age of adulthood in the Civil Code is 20, but the Criminal Code defines it as 18, the group said, adding that the gap has caused inconvenience for 578,000 Taiwanese aged 18 to 20.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
For example, people aged 18 to 20 cannot sign a contract with mobile carriers, take out a student loan, open a bank account, form a civic group or launch a start-up, but they can marry and are subject to full criminal liabilities, military duties and tax, they added.
This shows a lack of uniformity between power and responsibility, the group said, adding that the UK, France and Germany lowered the legal age of adulthood to 18 in the 1970s, while Japan passed similar legislation last year.
Allowing 18-year-olds — who grew up in the Internet era and received higher education — to exercise full autonomy is the consensus reached by the international community, it said.
Amending the Civil Code is a matter of establishing uniformity between power and responsibility, youth rights and making Taiwan follow international practices, rather than a matter of the ability or maturity of young people, group spokesperson Yeh Ta-hua (葉大華) said.
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
EVA Airways, one of the leading international carriers in Taiwan, yesterday said that it was investigating reports that a cabin crew manager had ignored the condition of a sick flight attendant, who died on Saturday. The airline made the statement in response to a post circulating on social media that said that the flight attendant on an outbound flight was feeling sick and notified the cabin crew manager. Although the flight attendant grew increasingly ill on the return flight, the manager did not contact Medlink — a system that connects the aircraft to doctors on the ground for treatment advice during medical
The Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union yesterday vowed to protest at the EVA Air Marathon on Sunday next week should EVA Airway Corp’s management continue to ignore the union’s petition to change rules on employees’ leave of absence system, after a flight attendant reportedly died after working on a long-haul flight while ill. The case has generated public discussion over whether taking personal or sick leave should affect a worker’s performance review. Several union members yesterday protested at the Legislative Yuan, holding white flowers and placards, while shouting: “Life is priceless; requesting leave is not a crime.” “The union is scheduled to meet with
‘UNITED FRONT’ RHETORIC: China’s TAO also plans to hold weekly, instead of biweekly, news conferences because it wants to control the cross-strait discourse, an expert said China’s plan to expand its single-entry visa-on-arrival service to Taiwanese would be of limited interest to Taiwanese and is a feeble attempt by Chinese administrators to demonstrate that they are doing something, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said the program aims to facilitate travel to China for Taiwanese compatriots, regardless of whether they are arriving via direct flights or are entering mainland China through Hong Kong, Macau or other countries, and they would be able to apply for a single-entry visa-on-arrival at all eligible entry points in China. The policy aims
RSS