141. According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No.
5 on the general measures of implementation, state parties should establish
first-class and independent coordinating and monitoring bodies, and collect
comprehensive data to formulate and implement adequate policies. Child abuse
cases have been appearing frequently in recent years. According to the statistics
gathered by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the youth and child protection
cases verified upon investigation from 2016 to 2018 include 45 caregiver abuser
cases. The Protection of Children and Youth Welfare and Rights Act has been
amended on April 24, 2019, by including Paragraph 8 to Article 81 therein
concerning the authorization to collect and search for information concerning
unfit personnel. Upon investigation and subsequent follow-up by the Control
Yuan and the Social and Family Affairs Administration, the Ministry of Health
and Welfare has established a care system integrated with the information
technology system, which has gone live in September 2020. Meanwhile, it also
worked with the Ministry of Education to establish a database collating and
crosschecking information about unfit personnel in the national caregiver
service institutions in order to prevent unfit personnel from working again in
kindergartens and infant care centers.
Special Judicial Protection for Children
142. The statistics gathered by the Ministry of Health and Welfare show that the
number of sexual assault cases reported within the welfare institutions have
been increasing year by year. According to the Convention on the Right of the
Child and Juvenile Justice Act, the juveniles and children with cases of
statutory offenses or tending towards offenses or touching on potential
violations of law should be transferred by means of judicial proceedings back
to the social welfare placement, lest they be sent through punitive legal
proceedings prematurely. The juvenile and child placement institutions are
identified as the last line of defense against prosecution for statutory or petty
offenses. It should be noted that the placement institutions have about 5,200
beds in total throughout the nation, of which more than 3,000 beds are already
occupied, i.e. a 63% bed occupancy rate. Theoretically, 63% occupancy can
accommodate supply and demand. But in consideration of the insufficient
number of caregivers retained by the various placement institutions, the
number of juveniles that can be housed by the institutions is actually far less
than the authorized number of beds. The institutions therefore do not show a
high willingness to accept placement of juveniles and children under judicial
order, in consideration of their carrying capacity, professional personnel and
facilities. Currently, the placement institutions willing to detain judicial
juveniles have insufficient resources and lack effective control measures to
deal with sexual assault cases. The Executive Yuan is should advise its
subsidiary units to discuss concrete and feasible solutions to this problem.
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