NHRC stages women’s employment, economic security forum

2024/06/11

The National Human Rights Commission held an international forum on women’s employment and economic security June 5 in Taipei City, underscoring the government’s commitment to promoting women’s rights as the world marks the 45th anniversary of the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
 
During her opening remarks, NHRC Chair Chen Chu said that Taiwan released its initial CEDAW national report in 2009, with four international reviews of such reports taking place over the past 15 years. The implementation of the convention, combined with the local women’s rights movement, has established common standards shared by communities at home and abroad, she added.
 
Chen went on to say that the forum reviewed Taiwan’s gender equality achievements, including the decriminalization of adultery and the legalization of same-sex marriage, as well as related challenges.
 
Echoing Chen’s remarks, Israeli keynote speaker Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, former vice chair of the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, stressed the importance of gender equality and economic security in marriages and families. Statistics show that women spend three times more time than men on unpaid labor every day, she said, adding that stereotypes and traditions have caused the family to become the most difficult area to resolve inequality.
 
Finish keynote speaker Niklas Bruun, also a former member of the U.N. CEDAW committee, shared global women’s rights practices at work. Only when a country has an education system that protects the rights of women and girls can it ensure women’s rights in the workplace, he said, suggesting that Taiwan strengthen the principle of equal pay for equal work via a payment transparency mechanism such as the one adopted by the EU last year to solve the gender pay gap.
 
The two keynote speakers joined officials and representatives from domestic nongovernmental organizations to attend a workshop hosted by NHRC June 6, where they discussed the Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating domestic violence, CEDAW General Recommendation No. 35 on gender-based violence against women, and ways to balance family, childcare and work. 


Source:  Taiwan Today (https://taiwantoday.tw/index.php)