The Control Yuan yesterday put forth a series of proposals, including the establishment of a whistle-blower protection program, to improve protections for children who have been sexually abused.
Control Yuan member Chi Hui-jung (紀惠容) and three other members told a news conference that the recommendations were part of a review of major sexual abuse cases involving minors over the past 10 years.
One of the proposals seeks to establish a whistle-blower program, under which people’s identities and right to work would be protected when they report cases of child sexual abuse.
The government should also set up an independent mechanism, either at the national or local level, to investigate and review reports of abuse, the Control Yuan members said.
More broadly, the government should expand education on children’s rights to break “the culture of silence” around such crimes, and allocate more funds for legal oversight, they said.
The Control Yuan panel also gave a briefing on its investigations into 17 major cases of child sexual abuse, which it said had formed the basis of its recommendations.
ABUSE ON CAMPUS
Eleven of the cases had occurred on school campuses, two at daycare centers and four at disabled care facilities, Chi said.
In 13 of the cases, the offender was an authority figure such as a teacher, coach or supervisor, she said.
Chi said that in 12 of the cases, one person had abused several victims, while five cases involved multiple offenders and victims, and four involved instances in which a victim became an abuser.
In total, the 17 cases involved about 113 offenders and 247 victims, she said.
Reports of sexual assault and harassment on school campuses have been rising steadily in Taiwan since 2006, with 94.3 percent of the 8,160 abuse cases reported last year involving students aged 12 to 18, Chi said.
Panel member Yeh Ta-hua (葉大華) said several of the 17 cases involved male victims, which reflects changing attitudes toward male survivors of sexual abuse.
The Control Yuan’s final report on the issue is due on July 31 next year.
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
RSS