Women and the Judiciary—Mobilizing the Public for Judicial Reform (Voice of the People Series)

In Taiwan, traditionally dominated by authoritarianism and male-centric perspectives, erroneous gender stereotypes and latent sexism have led to numerous unreasonable incidents. When women, long living in unsafe and unfair environments, seek legal protection after experiencing sexual assault or domestic violence, they frequently suffer secondary victimization or renewed humiliation due to patriarchal legal provisions, ignorance and indifference toward women's suffering among prosecutors, police, and investigators, as well as judicial officers' sexism and bureaucratic, perfunctory attitudes. This severely violates women's fundamental human rights.

While women's organizations have long sought legislative and legal reform channels to gradually establish fair and reasonable laws protecting disadvantaged women, inappropriate practices within judicial administration and litigation processes, along with breaking down and improving the notion that "the law does not enter the home," are also fundamental issues urgently needing resolution. In particular, the handling of family matters—such as marriage, children, custody, and marital property—possesses unique social characteristics that truly require specialized courts for their resolution. Therefore, a family court must be established as soon as possible to effectively consolidate and adjudicate related cases.

Because frontline prosecutors and police often lack an understanding of women's suffering and remain indifferent to women's rights, women who have suffered sexual assault or domestic violence frequently face secondary victimization. It is common to hear of cases where police dismiss reporting women with casual remarks like "stop making a fuss, go back and talk to your husband," or produce inaccurate, crude, and flawed interrogation transcripts that damage the parties' rights. Such situations stem not only from poor judicial system design, but also from Taiwan's long-standing patriarchal culture. When handling women's and family cases, judicial officers also frequently exhibit patriarchal thinking and gender discrimination. For instance, a long-term abused woman who finally managed to file a lawsuit was forced to endure continued suffering due to a judge's remark, "go back and wait another half year." In other instances, situations requiring segregated trials caused further distress to the parties due to judicial negligence or indifference.

Therefore, women's organizations maintain that:

1. The judicial sector should promptly establish family courts and assign specialized judges.
2. In-service training for prosecutors, police, investigators, and judicial officers should strengthen the cultivation of gender equality concepts.
3. Pre-service training for judicial officers should emphasize professionalization, modernization, and socialization.
4. Regulations should explicitly provide for social workers and other professionals to accompany parties to court for special family cases.
5. Grievance channels should be provided to reduce unfit judges and incidents harming parties.

Only by strengthening gender equality awareness in the in-service training of prosecutors, police, and judicial officers, and by emphasizing professional, modern, socialized, and non-discriminatory concepts in the pre-service training of future judicial personnel, can women's dignity be upheld, their physical safety guaranteed, gender discrimination eliminated, equality between the sexes promoted, and the Constitution's protection of the people's fundamental rights truly realized.