萬國法律事務所

The Internal Affairs Committee and the Social Welfare Committee of Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan has passed the preliminary review of the draft “Stalking and Harassment Control Act” (“Bill”).
 
Based on the Bill, anyone who commits a crime of stalking or harassing shall be sentenced to a maximum of three years imprisonment or short-term imprisonment and a maximum fine of NTD 300,000 may be imposed.  If anyone commits the aforesaid crime while carrying a weapon, the person shall be sentenced to a maximum of five years imprisonment or short-term imprisonment and a maximum fine of NTD 500,000 may be imposed.
 
However, the legislators have not yet reached a consensus with respect to the definition of “stalking and harassing” and whether there is a need to establish a consultation group.
 
In particular, the definition of “stalking and harassing” raises a lot of controversial questions.  The Bill initially proposed by the Executive Yuan limits the definition of “stalking and harassing” to actions “related to sex or sexuality.”  However, some legislators questioned such limitation, arguing that not all harassment is related to sexuality.  Other legislators similarly opined that such limitation will create difficulties for police officers in deciding whether such actions are related to sex or sexuality.
 
Another issue raised is whether to include preventive detention as a means to deter or prevent the crime of stalking and harassing.  One representatives of the Judicial Yuan has stated that prevention detention should only be used when the victims’ lives are in grave and imminent danger.  Generally, stalking and harassing actions do not rise to such a serious level.  As such, the provision allowing for preventive detention under the Bill ultimately did not pass the review.