Gender Equity Education Act Article 33

After receiving an application or a report of an offense referred to in Paragraph 1 of the previous article, a school or competent authority shall delegate the matter to its gender equity education committee within three days to handle an investigation, except when the circumstances referred to in Paragraph 2 of the previous article apply.When the gender equity education committee of a school or competent authority is handling an incident referred to in the previous Paragraph, it may set up an investigation team to investigate the matter; when necessary, some or all appointed members of the investigation team may be persons from outside the educational institution or competent authority. However, if the offender is a principal, teacher, staff member, or worker, an investigation team shall be established, and all of its members shall be external appointees. The investigation teams in which all appointed members are from outside the educational institution or competent authority and the completed investigation reports that occurred before the amendments to this Act takes effect on December 30, 2018, were legal.Members of the investigation team shall have an awareness of gender equity, and the number of female members is not permitted to be fewer than half of the total number of members. At least one-third of any investigation team at the school level and at least one half of any investigation team at the competent authority level shall be experts or scholars with professional expertise in the investigation of gender-related incidents on campus. The qualifications required for members shall be determined by the central competent authority.When the parties involved in a gender-related incident on campus belong to different schools, each investigation team specified in the previous Paragraph shall also include one or more representatives of the school with which the victim is affiliated. However, if the victim, his/her legal representative, or his/her de facto custodian requests that the school where the victim is currently enrolled not be notified, and the gender equity education committee determines that there is no need to make such notification, this requirement does not apply.When a gender equity education committee or an investigation team carries out an investigation in accordance with the provisions of this Act the perpetrator, the applicant, and any person(s) who or unit(s) which have been asked to assist in the investigation shall cooperate and provide pertinent information, and shall not evade, obstruct, or refuse.Applicable provisions of the Administrative Procedure Law regarding jurisdiction, referral of cases, recusal, service of notifications, and amendments shall be applied in this Act or apply, mutatis mutandis.