Women’s groups yesterday rejected the Ministry of the Interior’s anti-stalking draft act, saying it was treating the issue as equivalent to sexual harassment and failing to address the need for immediate preventative action.
The abduction and murder of a Chang Jung Christian University student last month has raised concerns about blind spots in public safety, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Sandy Yeh (葉毓蘭) told a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
While public attention is focused on the issue, the government should take the opportunity to pass an anti-stalking bill to rectify the inadequacies in the Domestic Violence Prevention Act (家庭暴力防治法) and Sexual Harassment Prevention Act (性騷擾防治法), she said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
There are two missing pieces in the nation’s legal protections for women and children: anti-stalking and anti-pornography legislation, Taiwan Coalition Against Violence director-general Peggy Wang (王珮玲) said.
Women’s groups have been calling for action while watching the rest of the world pass related laws, but the government has still not done anything, she said.
After early this year vowing to propose an anti-stalking bill within six months, Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) last month released a draft act that shocked and dismayed women’s rights advocates, Wang said.
As the bill considers stalking to be sexual harassment, it includes no provisions for immediate intervention, she said.
There are three core features to anti-stalking legislation around the world, Wang said.
They emphasize advance intervention over retroactive punishment, she said, adding that they also allow for immediate intervention and contain thorough protective order statutes.
The ministry’s version deviates too far from this standard, Wang said, urging the National Police Agency to avoid succumbing to sectionalism and consider a bill that has already been drafted by women’s rights groups.
Harassers not only physically follow their victims, but also virtually stalk them through social media, said Wang Chiu-lan (王秋嵐), director of the Modern Women’s Foundation’s Department of Research and Development.
In the absence of an anti-stalking law, every victim would have to file a sexual harassment complaint with the police, Wang Chiu-lan said.
Such cases take a long time to investigate, potentially forcing the victim to endure harassment until the police can intervene, she said.
What victims need is early intervention, not a response after it is already too late, she added.
Last month’s incident shows that stalking behavior, when not immediately addressed, often evolves into violence, KMT Legislator Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) said.
Intervening only after tragedy strikes is the wrong way to think about the issue, she said, adding that the main reason for drafting an anti-stalking law is to provide law enforcement with the legal basis to intervene early and effectively.
Stalking is just the beginning of a sequence of events that could end in violence, KMT Legislator Wu I-ding (吳怡玎) said.
More than 8,000 stalking cases are reported every year, she said, adding that if law enforcement had the tools to intervene early, it would reduce the number of domestic violence and sexual harassment incidents, and lighten police officers’ case loads.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
RSS