Statement | "Young Victims Should Not Be Deprived of the Opportunity to Pursue Justice": Civil Society's Draft Amendments to the Criminal Code and the Enforcement Act of the Criminal Code

Full Text of the Civil Society Draft (Including Ministry of Justice Comparison Version)

On March 20, 2024, the Grand Justices announced the acceptance of Case No. 112 (2023)-Xian-Min-Zi-384, aiming to address the issue of "excessively short prescription periods for prosecution in juvenile sexual autonomy offenses." However, due to amendments to the Constitutional Court Procedure Act and unfilled vacancies among the Grand Justices, the Constitutional Court has been unable to process cases for nearly a year, leaving a ruling in this case indefinitely delayed.

Meanwhile, following repeated calls for legal reform by civil society groups and legislators, the Ministry of Justice finally announced its draft amendment on August 12 of this year. The JRF has also deliberated on a civil society version of the draft concerning this issue, and hereby publicly releases and explains its legislative recommendations as follows.

I. Taiwan's Criminal Code of the Republic of China provisions on limitation periods fail to account for the particularly vulnerable circumstances faced by "minor victims of sexual offenses," falling short in child and youth protection

In 2018, in a case where Liang Mei-tsung, a gymnastics coach at Kaohsiung Kuang-Hua Elementary School, chronically sexually assaulted female students over a decade ago, police investigations triggered by reports revealed at least 7 female students were victimized, 4 of whom filed charges; however, only 2 cases were within the statutory limitation period. In 2023, a well-known artist surnamed Hsieh was accused of multiple sexual assaults against underage girls, but received a non-prosecution disposition because the statute of limitations for the case had expired, precluding accountability. The victim subsequently filed a private prosecution, which was still dismissed by the Taipei District Court Criminal Division on the grounds of an expired limitation period. These cases represent merely the tip of the iceberg.

The regulatory design of Article 80 of the current Criminal Code of the Republic of China fails to consider that minor victims—unlike adults, who possess a relatively complete sense of self-protection and a sound understanding of violations of their right to sexual autonomy—lack a buffer period for prosecution tailored to minor victims. Treating their limitation periods as completely identical to those of general adult crime victimization cases is tantamount to demanding that young victims possess the same sound cognitive awareness of sexual autonomy and rights-protection consciousness as average adult victims. Furthermore, if the perpetrator is a relative of the victim, the victim must also overcome psychological and interpersonal pressures as well as economic isolation to bring charges against the perpetrator within the limitation period; otherwise, once the limitation period expires, the perpetrator's past sexual crimes can no longer be sanctioned (for details, see the JRF statement dated April 14, 2025).

II. The JRF's proposed legislative recommendations

(1) From a legislative technique perspective, "suspension of the statute of limitations" appears appropriate

We believe that in terms of legislative technique, due to the special circumstances wherein "minors, not having matured physically and mentally, are unable to fully exercise their legal rights," the situation is akin to the obstacles listed under the "suspension of the statute of limitations" system in Article 83 of our Criminal Code of the Republic of China. From another perspective, the Ministry of Justice's direction of adding "periods prior to the victim reaching adulthood shall not be included" under Article 80 is essentially a form of "suspension of the limitation period." Since Article 83 already establishes this system, amending this article appears structurally preferable.

(2) The statute of limitations for offenses involving sexual intercourse and obscenity under the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act should also be extended

In the draft amendment proposed by the Ministry of Justice, the categories of cases where periods prior to the victim reaching adulthood are excluded from the prosecution limitation period include "offenses under Articles 221 to 227, Article 228, Article 229, Article 332, Paragraph 2, Subparagraph 2, Article 334, Paragraph 2, Subparagraph 2, and Article 348, Paragraph 2, Subparagraph 1" (meaning the definition of "sexual assault crimes" under Article 2 of the Crime Victim Rights Protection Act).

However, we believe that in addition to the aforementioned cases, offenses under the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act involving compelling children or juveniles to engage in sexual intercourse or obscenity with others should also have their prosecution limitation periods extended. The differences in scope of application between the civil society version and the Ministry of Justice version are tabulated below:

Article	Offense	Civil Society Version	Ministry of Justice Version
Article 221 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of China	Compulsory Sexual Intercourse	◯	◯
Article 222 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of China	Aggravated Compulsory Sexual Intercourse	◯	◯
Article 223 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of China	(Deleted)	－	－
Article 224 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of China	Compulsory Obscenity	◯	◯
Article 224-1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of China	Aggravated Compulsory Obscenity	◯	◯
Article 225 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of China	Sexual Intercourse or Obscenity by Taking Advantage of Another's Helplessness	◯	◯
Article 226 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of China	Offenses against Sexual Autonomy Resulting in Aggravated Consequences	◯	◯
Article 226-1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of China	Combined Offenses of Offenses against Sexual Autonomy	◯	◯
Article 227 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of China	Sexual Intercourse or Obscenity with Persons Under 16 Years of Age	◯	◯
Article 227-1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of China	Sexual Intercourse or Obscenity with Persons Under 18 Years of Age	✕	✕
Article 228 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of China	Sexual Intercourse or Obscenity by Abuse of Power	◯	◯
Article 229 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of China	Sexual Intercourse by Fraud	◯	◯
Article 332, Paragraph 2, Subparagraph 2 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of China	Robbery Combined with Compulsory Sexual Intercourse	◯	◯
Article 334, Paragraph 2, Subparagraph 2 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of China	Piracy Combined with Compulsory Sexual Intercourse	◯	◯
Article 348, Paragraph 2, Subparagraph 1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of China	Kidnapping for Ransom Combined with Compulsory Sexual Intercourse	◯	◯
Article 33, Paragraph 1 of the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act	Compelling Children or Juveniles to Engage in Compensated Sexual Intercourse or Obscenity	◯	✕
Article 33, Paragraph 2 of the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act	Compelling Children or Juveniles to Engage in Compensated Sexual Intercourse or Obscenity for Profit	◯	✕
Article 34, Paragraph 2 of the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act	Compelling, Buying, Selling, or Pledging Children or Juveniles with Intent to Cause Them to Engage in Compensated Sexual Intercourse or Obscenity	◯	✕
Article 35, Paragraph 2 of the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act	Compelling Children or Juveniles to Engage in Sexual Intercourse or Obscenity for Public Viewing	◯	✕
Article 36, Paragraph 3 of the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act	Compelling Children or Juveniles to Record Sexual Imagery or Obscene Articles	◯	✕
Article 37 of the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act	Combined and Aggravated Offenses of the Above Five Offenses	◯	✕

III. For cases where the prosecution limitation period has not yet expired, the provisions of the new law should apply to extend it

Finally, regarding cases where the limitation period has not yet expired in the past, the Ministry of Justice's draft version holds that provisions between the old and new laws most favorable to the "perpetrator (i.e., the defendant)" should apply, mirroring Article 8-1, Paragraph 1. However, we believe that for cases where "the limitation period is currently running but has not yet expired" under this legislative amendment, the newly amended law should apply to the calculation of the limitation period.

The purpose of this legislative amendment is to account for cases of child and youth sexual assault or obscenity where children and youths, at the time of suffering sexual assault or obscenity, may not realize they are being victimized, or may face ignorance or other factors making it difficult to exercise their rights, thereby rendering them unable to pursue legal prosecution for the sexual crimes they suffered until many years later, by which time the prosecution limitation period has already expired. To fulfill the purpose of this legislative amendment, cases where the prosecution limitation period has still not expired after the implementation of this amendment should be subject to the amended limitation provisions.

For example, suppose a perpetrator committed compulsory sexual intercourse against a minor aged 10 at the time (born on July 1) on January 1, 2007. According to Article 80 of the current Criminal Code of the Republic of China, the prosecution limitation period runs until January 1, 2017. If Article 8-3 of the Enforcement Law of the Criminal Code of the Republic of China (civil society version) is passed and amended before January 1, 2017, then pursuant to Article 83 of the amended Criminal Code of the Republic of China, the calculation of the limitation period should be suspended until the victim reaches adulthood (i.e., before July 1, 2015). Thus, in this case, the perpetrator's prosecution limitation period should have been suspended starting from the date of the offense on January 1, 2007, and then began to run for 20 years starting from July 1, 2015, lasting until July 1, 2025.

IV. The Ministry of Justice and the Legislative Yuan should swiftly complete legislative amendments to implement child and youth protection

The failure of our criminal law to establish special limitation periods for child and youth victimization sexual offense cases constitutes a severe legislative omission. As stated by the Nuan-Nuan Sunshine Association at a press conference last year: "Over the past 19 years, a total of 1,040 victims have had their cases given non-prosecution dispositions after filing charges because the limitation period had expired." This demonstrates that this legislative omission has left numerous victims without recourse in the criminal justice system.

The JRF hereby calls upon the Ministry of Justice to accelerate its work on deliberating the draft amendments. The Legislative Yuan should also prioritize reviewing the draft during the legislative session to fulfill the state's obligation to protect children and youths at an early date.

Press Contact

Lu Cheng-yen, Attorney-at-Law, Director of the Legal Policy Department, Judicial Reform Foundation
Tel: 02-2523-1178#37
Email: elvin@jrf.org.tw