Grand Justices throw out fingerprinting

The Council of Grand Justices yesterday announced that the fingerprinting provision in the House-hold Registration Law (戶籍法) is unconstitutional.

"A fingerprint is an important piece of personal privacy. Compulsory fingerprinting for national identity cards encroaches on this privacy, which is a basic human right protected by the Constitution," Fan Kuang-chun (范光群), secretary-general of the Judicial Yuan, said yesterday.

Article 8 of the Household Registration Law stipulating compulsory fingerprinting for national identity cards violates Article 22 of the Constitution, which provides for human-rights protection, Fan said.

He said that, according to "the principle of proportionality" as stipulated in Article 23 of the Constitution, the Ministry of the Interior's claim that a citizen-fingerprint database would be helpful when searching for illegal immigrants, laborers and criminals, and identifying dead bodies or suspects, is insufficient reason for establishing such a database.

Fan said that the fingerprinting provision would become invalid with immediate effect.

However, "according to Article 23 of the Constitution, the government can enact proper laws to establish a national fingerprint database if it can prove that a fingerprint database is really necessary for the public good," he said.

But such a new law should expressly forbid the fingerprints being used for purposes not stipulated in the law, Fan said.

The constitutional interpretation came in the wake of the government's controversial policy about compulsory fingerprinting for national identity cards.

The article stipulates that people applying for new national identification cards must submit their fingerprints, which critics say encroaches on a range of human rights.

The program, which was scheduled to begin on July 1, was halted on June 13 because of the Council of Grand Justices' "temporary injunction" against the initiative.

The Ministry of the Interior yesterday responded that it would seek to establish a new law to settle the controversy over whether to establish a national fingerprint database.

The council's decision was made in response to a petition filed by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators on May 31, backed by a wide coalition of over 100 human rights, legal, civic reform and social groups.

After the ruling, the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) announced that it will respect the judges' interpretation of the Constitution and the decision the court has made regarding the policy.

The MOI said it will cancel the fingerprint policy with immediate effect.

The Minister of the Interior, Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全), said that the fingerprinting policy did not affect the issuing of new ID cards, which will be issued as planned on Dec. 21, after the mayoral and commissioner elections.

Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), who is also the convener of the Presidential Office Human Rights Advisory Commission, lauded the grand justices for making a constitutional interpretation in defense of human rights.

"The constitutional interpretation is a perfect decision. I admire it very much," Lu said at a press conference held at the Presidential Office after the announcement.

She said that the interpretation also taught politicians a lesson -- lawmakers should not enact a law that is in violation of human rights and the Executive Yuan is under no obligation to implement such a law.