Premier Jiang Yi-huah accompanied President Ma Ying-jeou this evening at a welcome banquet for five women's rights experts who are in Taiwan to review the country's second report on implementing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The reviewers hail from South Korea, Malaysia, the United States, the Philippines and Kenya.
"Women's rights and gender equality are universal values in the modern world, and we are eager to further integrate them into our governing philosophy," said the premier, who is also the convener of the Executive Yuan's Gender Equality Committee (GEC).
Though Taiwan is not a member of the U.N., it has made the CEDAW into domestic law by enacting the Enforcement Act of CEDAW on June 8, 2011. Effective since January 1, 2012, this act makes the CEDAW's provisions and general recommendations legally enforceable in Taiwan without exception. This represents Taiwan's vow to the world to protect women's rights, Jiang said.
The CEDAW enforcement act requires that within three years of enactment all government bodies review all regulations and administrative measures and revise those that do not conform to CEDAW principles. A total of 33,157 regulations and administrative measures were reviewed during this process, of which 226 were found to be non-compliant with CEDAW principles. Amendments of these non-conforming laws are scheduled to be completed by the end of this year, and the Executive Yuan will be following their progress closely, Jiang said.
The act also mandates the establishment of a reporting system for eliminating all forms of discrimination against women. The government is required to engage professionals, scholars and representatives from NGOs to prepare a national report every four years and to adjust its policies based on the outcome of reviews of this report.
Following the initial national report made in 2009, Taiwan completed the second national report by the end of 2013 and published it in early 2014. This national report was drafted in accordance with the guidelines of the U.N. Human Rights Council under the joint efforts of 32 agencies from all five branches of the government. To take all views into account, experts, scholars, and NGO representatives were invited to discuss the report and offer suggestions to the government during 23 seminars, public hearings and meetings throughout the year leading up to the report's completion in December 2013.
The premier said that the Executive Yuan is privileged to have invited five world-renowned women's rights experts to review Taiwan's national report according to the model of the U.N.'s CEDAW committee. To prepare for this review, the Executive Yuan first assembled a consultative panel, whose five members come from the GEC and NGOs that have long focused on the CEDAW and women's rights issues. This panel advised the Executive Yuan all through the preparations to ensure Taiwan's efforts on women's rights can be fully understood throughout the country and the world.
The Department of Gender Equality under the Executive Yuan and the Foundation for Women's Rights Promotion and Development were joint secretaries for the second national CEDAW report. The official report, along with 36 alternative and shadow reports drafted by the private sector, has already been submitted to the review committee, Jiang explained.
All five review committee members have extensive experience working with the U.N. for the protection of women's rights and the elevation of the economic, social and cultural status of women. The Executive Yuan welcomes their opinions and recommendations of how to improve further, the premier said. The GEC will establish improvement, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to push forward the implementation of their suggestions by Executive Yuan agencies and ensure that Taiwan's protection of women's rights is in line with the regulations of the CEDAW and in step with the rest of the world.
The review and presentation of the second national report will take place from June 23 to 25, followed by a press conference on June 26 to present the review committee's final conclusions.