Justice Ministry to propose child abuse penalty bill within 3 months

Taipei, May 22 (CNA) The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) aims to submit a draft bill within three months to increase penalties for child abuse, including the possibility of adding the death penalty for abuse resulting in death.

MOJ Deputy Minister Hsu Hsi-hsiang (徐錫祥) mentioned the three-month timeline during a public hearing held by the Legislative Yuan Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee, which was attended by children's advocacy groups and legal experts.

At the hearing, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) law professor Lin Chih-chieh (林志潔) said the law could be changed to allow the death penalty in child abuse cases that result in death.

According to the MOJ, current law already provides the death penalty as the maximum sentence for "intentionally" abusing and killing children.

Li Yu-chun (李侑宭), spokesperson for "Kai Kai online parents group" (剴剴網路爸媽群), said her group proposed six demands, including the creation of a dedicated child protection agency and the introduction of a new offense of "abusive killing of a child" punishable by death or life without parole.

The Judicial Yuan said in a written report that the offense of abusing a young child to death is a result-aggravated crime, not one committed with direct intent.

It cited Constitutional Interpretation No. 8 (2024) as stating such offenses do not qualify as the "most serious crimes" and thus cannot be punished by death.

It also warned that increasing the statutory maximum penalty to death could create inconsistencies with Article 271, Paragraph 1 of Taiwan's Criminal Code, which relates to offenses of homicide.

Hsu Ni-ni (徐妮妮), convener of Children Umbrellas (孩想陪你長大聯盟), a child protection advocacy group, said that while current law permits life sentences for abuse resulting in death, the option of parole undermines justice.

Tsai Pei-shan (蔡沛珊), chief prosecutor at the Taoyuan District Prosecutors Office, said that denying parole only for those convicted of child abuse could violate the principle of equality.

Kuomintang (KMT) lawmaker Wu Tsung-hsien (吳宗憲), who chaired the session, asked the MOJ for a timeline for the draft legislation, to which the MOJ deputy minister replied that it would be ready to send to the Executive Yuan "within three months."

The issue of child abuse has been in the spotlight in recent months, following the high-profile death of Kai Kai (剴剴), a one-year-old boy who was tortured to death by two nannies surnamed Liu (劉) who were respectively sentenced to life imprisonment and 18 years last week.

A recent survey by the Action Alliance on Basic Education found that 92.1 percent of respondents believe current penalties for fatal child abuse are too light and should be increased.

The same poll, which was based on 8,724 valid responses collected between May 17 and 21, found that 88.6 percent support mandatory psychological treatment and recidivism assessments for offenders.