Human rights in this country are about to take another step forward. The Presidential Office's consultative team on human rights has drafted a human-rights bill based on the the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. It stresses protecting human rights and realizing President Chen Shui-bian's (
The bill adopts many advanced concepts, such as abolishing the death penalty and allowing same-sex couples to adopt children. These are major breakthroughs and deserve kudos. However, they are also highly controversial social issues. Long-running efforts will be needed to realize them in the legal system.
Death-for-death retribution is an outmoded concept. Correcting the psychological and behavioral patterns of criminals so that they can return to society after they have served their punishment is now the goal. However, many serious criminals have caused great harm to society. It is difficult for them to change even after receiving correctional education and treatment. They should remain quarantined from society.
The DPP has long advocated abolishing the death penalty, but public satisfaction with law enforcement and social order has always been low. The idea of using heavy punishment to tackle social chaos is also prevalent. Public support for the death penalty has always been above 70 percent. Such a strong psychological dependence on the death penalty means the government dares not push hard to abolish it. It can only resort to legislative amendments to remove articles requiring mandatory death penalties so that judges can mete out appropriate penalties according to the gravity of the crime.
This country needs to undergo more education about the rule of law before the death penalty can be removed. The public needs to be educated that the death penalty is not the only option for improving law and order. The death penalty may be an effective way to stop criminals from harming others, but it is certainly not the only way to keep major criminals out of society.
Apart from the death penalty, life sentences have long been used to remove criminals from society, but the abuse of parole and amnesties have allowed some serious criminals -- such as Chen Chin-hsing (
Even though the US is a country that attaches importance to human rights, many of its states still have the death penalty. However, several of theses states are gradually adopting the option of life sentences without parole instead of death ? -- largely because of dissatisfaction with the handling of such cases. Far too many people who were sentenced to death have been found to be innocent after spending years, even decades, on death row.
Before it tries to abolish capital punishment, the government should introduce a "life-without-parole" sentence. This may encourage people to believe that there are effective ways to protect society from serious offenders, other than taking life. This will be an effective alternative to the death penalty.
Because much of what former US president Donald Trump says is unhinged and histrionic, it is tempting to dismiss all of it as bunk. Yet the potential future president has a populist knack for sounding alarums that resonate with the zeitgeist — for example, with growing anxiety about World War III and nuclear Armageddon. “We’re a failing nation,” Trump ranted during his US presidential debate against US Vice President Kamala Harris in one particularly meandering answer (the one that also recycled urban myths about immigrants eating cats). “And what, what’s going on here, you’re going to end up in World War
Earlier this month in Newsweek, President William Lai (賴清德) challenged the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to retake the territories lost to Russia in the 19th century rather than invade Taiwan. He stated: “If it is for the sake of territorial integrity, why doesn’t [the PRC] take back the lands occupied by Russia that were signed over in the treaty of Aigun?” This was a brilliant political move to finally state openly what many Chinese in both China and Taiwan have long been thinking about the lost territories in the Russian far east: The Russian far east should be “theirs.” Granted, Lai issued
On Tuesday, President William Lai (賴清德) met with a delegation from the Hoover Institution, a think tank based at Stanford University in California, to discuss strengthening US-Taiwan relations and enhancing peace and stability in the region. The delegation was led by James Ellis Jr, co-chair of the institution’s Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region project and former commander of the US Strategic Command. It also included former Australian minister for foreign affairs Marise Payne, influential US academics and other former policymakers. Think tank diplomacy is an important component of Taiwan’s efforts to maintain high-level dialogue with other nations with which it does
On Sept. 2, Elbridge Colby, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development, wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal called “The US and Taiwan Must Change Course” that defends his position that the US and Taiwan are not doing enough to deter the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from taking Taiwan. Colby is correct, of course: the US and Taiwan need to do a lot more or the PRC will invade Taiwan like Russia did against Ukraine. The US and Taiwan have failed to prepare properly to deter war. The blame must fall on politicians and policymakers