Taiwan Today

Taiwan furthers its human rights policies for children in line with globally recognized standards.

Students around the world are a powerful force for social change, and Taiwan’s high schoolers are no exception. In 2019, teenagers at a New Taipei City institution made strategic use of a school milestone and an upcoming vote in the Legislative Yuan on same-sex marriage to stage a protest against gender-based discrimination in their uniform dress code. During the week running up to Banqiao Senior High School’s 73rd anniversary, boys attended class in skirts, catching the attention of news outlets around the world. Their action yielded historic results: the school’s administration announced changes allowing student choice in uniform regardless of gender, describing the move as a win for students’ autonomy and rights.

  Though some conservative groups reacted with dismay to the idea of boys in female clothing, the Ministry of Education affirmed the decision. Despite its exclusion from the U.N., Taiwan is committed to upholding global standards such as the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and the school’s actions demonstrate the priority the country gives to children’s best interests when implementing policies.

Legal Underpinnings
In 2014 Taiwan enacted the Implementation Act of the CRC. By doing so, the government indicated its intent to refine existing domestic law relating to the convention’s four main principles: nondiscrimination; the best interests of the child; children’s rights to life, survival and development; and respect for the views of the child. The act established the Executive Yuan’s Child and Youth Welfare and Rights Committee (CYWRC) staffed by the Social and Family Affairs Administration (SFAA) under the Ministry of Health and Welfare. To provide a variety of perspectives, the interministerial group comprises Cabinet officials, leaders of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and academics as well as children’s representatives. In extant law, children are defined as those under 12, while youths are aged 12 to 18 years.

Among CYWRC’s responsibilities is the compilation of a national report every five years, into which it prepares every five years and incorporates opinions from local NGOs like Taipei-based Child Welfare League Foundation (CWLF) and Children’s Rights Alliance Taiwan (CRAT). This domestic report is produced with a focus on family environment and alternative care, children with disabilities, and basic health and welfare, along with education, leisure and cultural activities. Also under scrutiny are special measures aimed at protecting vulnerable children, including those in conflict with the law or suffering from economic exploitation, violence or sexual abuse.

The first report came three years after the promulgation of the implementation act. An international panel of experts from five countries provided a review based on the reports received from CYWRC and NGOs. With the insights and recommendations gleaned from these reports, Taiwan’s government redistributed funding and focused on updating laws, such as the 2021 amendment of the Protection of Children and Youths Welfare and Rights Act, which in 2003 combined two existing laws related to minors.

Changing Minds
Another big step came in 2019 with an amendment to the Juvenile Justice Act clarifying that minors would be managed within the social welfare and education systems rather than prosecuted in criminal court. Pai Li-fang (白麗芳), chief executive officer at  CWLF, applauded the decision. “A core idea of the CRC is that the child should be protected,” she said. “This concept’s incorporation into domestic law plays a key role in helping push progress in public perception.”

As an example of codifying value shifts, a 2006 revision to the Educational Fundamental Act specified that students have a right to protection from corporal punishment. CWLF’s statistics show a dramatic change in people’s attitudes toward physical discipline, which Pai attributes to the work of advocacy groups and the government’s educational and judicial policy shifts. In addition to its varied child and family services, CWLF monitors public opinion on many topics, and comparisons between positions held in 2014 and 2022 are striking. Since the Implementation Act of the CRC in 2014, the percentage of people who consider any degree of physical punishment to be an act of violence has grown to 73.1 percent.

  As more progressive attitudes forge new regulations, organizations like CWLF provide assistance and training to children and families who want to break outdated molds. “Kids are ready and able to speak but adults are not always well prepared to listen,” Pai said. “We offer parenting support to give them the tools to do so.” This assistance is supplemented with resources for childcare institutions and other caregivers.

Important Lessons
Last November, Taiwan’s government assembled the second international review committee for the subsequent report on its implementation of the CRC. Government officials, children’s representatives and members of local NGOs met with five experts from Australia, Ireland, Serbia, the Netherlands and the U.K. They heard from children, too: two years ago CWLF began collecting opinions from 58 children living in different parts of Taiwan. After a five-month workshop last year, nine of them reported directly to international committee members. This project to empower young people to speak is just one of many that have been financed by growing budgets for child and youth-related affairs, which increased 14 percent between 2017 and 2020, according to Lee Ling-fong (李臨鳳), deputy director general at SFAA.

The international committee’s three days of discussion ended with the release of its concluding observations and a list of recommendations for the government. The committee praised several legislative items, including the amendments to the acts relating to juvenile justice and children’s rights and welfare. They also recognized the 2019 Suicide Prevention Act for its implementation of preventive practices, educational focus and requirement for schools to provide psychological counseling. During the November news conference, CYWRC head and Minister without Portfolio Lin Wan-i (林萬億) committed to implementing the recommendations and further assessing progress in the next national report.

Lin Yueh-chin (林月琴), a CYWRC member and head of CRAT, acknowledges that in a fast-changing world children’s rights are a work in progress. She pointed out that addressing child and youth issues requires cross-sector communication and collaboration among ministries and agencies in charge of education, household administration, police, social security and transportation, among others. While CYWRC fulfills that need, NGOs that work with the committee are calling for it to be upgraded to a permanent body empowered with stable funding and human resources, following the precedent set by the 2012 establishment of the Executive Yuan’s Department of Gender Equality.

In the final analysis by CRAT’s Lin, contemporary society’s mindsets and value judgements need to be more closely reflected in legislation that enshrines the rights of children. SFAA’s Lee agrees and looks forward to continued efforts in the public and private sectors that will further the goals of the CRC. “When adults pay attention to and fully respect human rights among all age groups, society reaches a higher level of maturity,” she said. “Educating children on their rights will in turn give rise to a generation of adults who treat kids fairly and equally.”
 

Write to Pat Gao at cjkao@mofa.gov.tw