「生理性別」與「社會性別」的國家討論 Discussions on the Definition of Sex and Gender at the National Level, 2018-2020 (Part 1)
The series of discussions on the definition and usage of "sex" and "gender" in national policies in Taiwan initiated by NGOs at the Review and Presentation of the ROC (Taiwan) CEDAW 3rd National Report in July, 2018 was conducted in the following order.
1. The Association of HIV/AIDS and Child Care and 3 other NGOs urged the government to use "sex" and "gender" according to CEDAW's definition and should not leave out women.
2. The CEDAW International Review Committee (IRC) suggested the government to review and correct the use of "sex" and "gender" in "all the legislative texts and policy documents and promote correct understanding of these terms in line with CEDAW".
(The IRC specifies that "The term “sex” refers to "biological differences between men and women" .See 2. in the following.)
3. The Executive Yuan issued commands to all government agencies to review and correct the use of "sex" and "gender", but the wording was too vague for people to understand. (I witnessed the cofusion at official meetings.)
4. I wrote to the Executive Yuan to point out that in the official Chinese translation of the IRC's Recommendations the critical word of "Taiwan" is missing ("the inappropriate conceptual and practical use of the terms 'sex' and 'gender' in Taiwan") and that instructions given by the Executive Yuan were unclear.
5. The Executive Yuan replied and promised to make corrections.
6. The Department of Gender Equality under the Executive Yuan called for a closed-door "expert" meeting (to which none of the initial NGOs was invited), in which it was decided that there was no inappropriate conceptual and practical use of the terms 'sex' and 'gender' in Taiwan. The IRC's misunderstanding was caused by translation.
7. The Executive Yuan issued a guidline of Chinese to English translation regarding "gender" to all government agencies, demanding that "all the legislative texts " should be revised accordingly. No definition was given, but a list of gender-related English and Chinese terms were placed side by side. The English word "sex" disappeared.
消歧公約第三次報告國際審查委員會有關"生理性別"及"社會性別"之討論過程
1. 民間團體發言，要求政府正確使用＂生理性別＂及＂社會性別＂，不應以定義不明的"多元性別"取代消歧公約中的男女
發表文章
