A recent inspection by the Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights (TAPCPR) found that only 3.4 percent of gender-friendly restrooms meet standards set by the Ministry of Environment.
The ministry said that most of these restrooms were around before it established its gender-friendly restroom action plan.
The Environmental Management Association (EMA) set up gender-inclusive restroom certification at the end of last month, it said, vowing to continue providing guidance and funding.
Photo: CNA
The ministry launched its gender-friendly restroom action plan in August last year, budgeting NT$280 million (US$8.97 million) to double the amount of these restrooms within five years, from 623 to 1,246.
TAPCPR randomly inspected 149 of the restrooms listed by the ministry and found that only 54 meet basic gender-friendly restroom principles.
If additional requirements are considered, including posting signs about gender-friendly concepts, then only five restrooms passed, less than 3.4 percent.
TAPCPR urged the ministry to establish and enforce clear standards, and reclaim subsidies if restrooms fail to meet requirements.
When the ministry launched its action plan, it found that only 1.4 percent of public restrooms nationwide were gender inclusive.
The plan was established to ensure that no one is left behind and to promote gender-friendly policies in public spaces, the ministry said.
The EMA set up gender-friendly restroom certification on Oct. 30, setting clear standards to recognize the friendliest restrooms, the ministry added.
The goal is to help people easily identify certified gender-inclusive restrooms and encourage more venues to create and improve them, it said.
EMA official Lee Jui-ling (李瑞玲) said that the plan provides local governments with subsidies to promote gender equality in public restrooms.
The plan is not a legal regulation, nor does it have a set inspection schedule or timeline, Lee said.
Most registered gender-friendly restrooms existed before the plan was implemented, and efforts to improve such restrooms would continue through guidance and subsidies, she added.
Subsidy priority would be given to authorities that are promoting gender-friendly restrooms rather than making general repairs, she added.
The ministry said that concerns raised by TAPCPR align with the goals of the action plan, and welcomed all input to help build a more inclusive society.
Promoting gender-friendly restrooms requires active participation and cooperation among government agencies and private organizations, it added.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
BACK TO WINTER: A strong continental cold air mass would move south on Tuesday next week, bringing colder temperatures to northern and central Taiwan A tropical depression east of the Philippines could soon be upgraded to be the first tropical storm of this year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the next cold air mass is forecast to arrive on Monday next week. CWA forecaster Cheng Jie-ren (鄭傑仁) said the first tropical depression of this year is over waters east of the Philippines, about 1,867km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), and could strengthen into Tropical Storm Nokaen by early today. The system is moving slowly from northwest to north, and is expected to remain east of the Philippines with little chance of affecting Taiwan,
RSS