Taipei, Aug. 28 (CNA) Regulation of the law is the last line of defense in terms of gender equity and respect is the key word in solving issues like sexual crime, sexual harassment and employment discrimination, a women's rights advocate said Monday.
"In that sense, gender equity education may be the most important task for us, although women also need the protection of the law at all times, " said Ku Yen-lin, Director of the Taipei Public Service Institute, on the sidelines of an international conference of U.N. Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW.)
Since the establishment of the Committee for Promotion of Women's Rights under the Executive Yuan in 1997, Yen said, the passage of bills such as the Sexual Harassment Prevention Law, Sexual Crime Law, Domestic Violence Prevention Law and Gender Equity Education Act has provided more protection than before for women.
But those bills focus on details and punishments, she said.
"Do we really need a law to tell us which parts of a woman's body a man can and cannot touch or what a man should and should not say to a woman? " she asked, adding that there have been many problems regarding the implementation of the laws.
Integration of the law should be done as well, Yen said. For example, it is sometimes confusing that the issue of sexual harassment is regulated by three different bills.
"Government policy should be goal-oriented and priorities should be established, " she said, adding that the protection of "new immigrant women" is also an urgent task.