More than half of the respondents to a recent poll described themselves as satisfied with human rights in Taiwan, seeing progress in the rights of women and Aborigines, but feeling that their economic and judicial rights have declined, according to survey results released yesterday.
The Taipei-based Chinese Association for Human Rights conducted the survey from September through the end of last month, collecting 1,084 effective samples on perceptions of the human rights situation in 11 areas, including politics, judicial affairs, women, children, Aborigines, the disabled, the environment and economics.
In addition, the association gathered opinions from 180 experts and academics on the same questions. It had a margin of error of 3.04 percentage points.
The survey found that 66.8 percent of the respondents gave a negative evaluation of their economic rights, the highest ratio among all negative views.
Of the three questions in the economic rights category, “government role and economic human rights” received a lower score than last year, while “consumer rights” and “production and employment” were given better grades than in last year’s survey.
Chu Mei-lie (朱美麗) of National Chengchi University said most academics gave a negative score for the government’s role in protecting people’s economic rights, adding that it was time the government put forward a viable economic policy to address public concerns.
Another area that received poor comments was the judiciary, with 44.9 percent of those surveyed saying judicial rights have declined from last year and only 24.6 percent feeling that they have improved.
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