The US Department of State cited no credible reports of significant human rights abuses in Taiwan in its 2024 Human Rights Report released yesterday, although it detailed mistreatment of migrant workers and reports of child marriage, and for the first time mentioned Chinese pressure on a non-governmental organization (NGO).
The first such report since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House has been widely criticized for largely omitting LGBTQ+ rights violations and giving politically driven assessments, Reuters reported.
Compared with the 2023 Human Rights Report under former US president Joe Biden, the Taiwan section was significantly cut to 13 from 31 pages.
Photo: Reuters
The section “Discrimination and Societal Abuses” was entirely removed, as well as the subsections “Women” — encompassing gender-based violence, rape and domestic violence, sex trafficking and reproductive rights — and “Systemic Racial or Ethnic Violence and Discrimination.”
The latest report also omitted any mention of issues related to LGBTQ+ identity, gender recognition or indigenous peoples that had featured in previous versions.
The first section, titled “Life,” found no reports of forced abortion or sterilization, or extrajudicial killings by authorities, while the second, “Liberty,” said Taiwan maintains “an independent press, an effective judiciary and a functioning democratic political system.”
However, it mentioned a case in September last year, in which a Taiwanese NGO reported that People’s Republic of China (PRC) authorities had pressured Taiwanese businesses to “refrain from advertising with Taiwan media outlets that published content critical of the PRC.”
The report also highlighted poor working conditions for Taiwan’s more than 793,000 foreign workers, largely from Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand.
Migrant fishers reported a lower minimum wage, and were “commonly subjected to mistreatment and poor working conditions,” it said.
NGOs said that migrant household workers also went underpaid due to an absence of work hour regulations, the report said, with migrant workers in domestic help and manufacturing comprising the majority of an estimated 87,575 workers not in touch with their legal employers and benefiting from applicable labor protections.
Occupational health and safety standards were generally praised, with at least 182,000 previously uninsured migrant household workers now covered under new government schemes, while the Ministry of Labor now provides assistance and legal advice 24 hours a day, toll-free and in six languages, it said.
However, the report mentioned that NGOs have criticized the current system, as migrant workers are reluctant to report employers for fear of retaliation or dismissal, or are unable to access these resources on remote fishing vessels.
Taiwan has strong labor laws that “provided for the right of workers to form and join independent unions, conduct strikes and bargain collectively,” the report said
However, teachers and civil servants were prohibited from striking, with labor organizations stating that mediation and legal processes impeded workers’ right to strike, it added.
Taiwan has a minimum wage that increases every year and is above the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s poverty level, but this did not cover all management, doctors, healthcare workers, gardeners, bodyguards, self-employed lawyers, civil servants and domestic household workers, it said.
The final section, “Security of the Person,” said that Taiwan had “no significant presence of the worst forms of child labor” last year, but mentioned some reports of child marriages in rural areas.
It did not update on the 2023 edition, which stated that child sex trafficking had been reported.
Although Taiwan was unable to cooperate with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees or other major international humanitarian organizations due to its “unique political status,” it did allow Chinese nationals seeking asylum to remain in Taiwan on a case-by-case basis, while providing humanitarian and resettlement assistance for Hong Kongers, the report said.
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