Taiwan has made significant progress in the past 30 years in terms of human rights protection, Amnesty International (AI) secretary-general Salil Shetty said yesterday.
However, he said there is still room for improvement — especially when it comes to police brutality and the use of torture against peaceful demonstrators.
On his first visit to Taiwan, Shetty said it does not feel like an unfamiliar country, because AI, along with other global human rights organizations, have worked with Taiwan before, including efforts to rescue political prisoners during the Martial Law era.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
After several days in the country, which has included traveling down to Greater Kaohsiung, Shetty said he has enjoyed Taiwan’s landscape and people’s dynamism and energy, especially when it comes to human rights issues.
“I believe events in the past two or three months, such as the Sunflower movement, have been helpful in raising public awareness and increasing involvement in human rights campaigns,” Shetty said in an interview with the Taipei Times yesterday.
However, when it comes to how the government responded to those demonstrations, Shetty shakes his head.
“We haven’t made detailed research, but from all the assessments we’ve made so far, there have been several cases in which the police have used excessive force in crowd control, especially when facing peaceful, sitting demonstrators,” he said. “In a democratic society, peaceful assembly is a fundamental right of the people — it is also stated in the Taiwanese Constitution — and it is the government’s responsibility to protect it.”
“The use of public spaces for public protests is a legitimate use, as long as it’s for peaceful demonstration,” he added.
Shetty said that, for instance, the use of water cannons against peaceful demonstrators is in violation of international human rights standards. “There is a set of UN guidelines for police handling of public protests, which especially stresses the point that all measures must be ‘necessary’ and ‘proportional,’” he said.
Shetty said he brought up the issue in a meeting with Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) on Friday and called on the government to take immediate action on allegations and complaints of excessive use of force by the police, as well as provide better training for police crowd control and revise the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), which falls outside of international standards.
Speaking about the death of late army corporal Hung Chung-chiu (洪仲丘) and the cases of death-row inmates Cheng Hsing-tse (鄭性澤) and Chiu Ho-shun (邱和順), Shetty said the three cases show that — long after Martial Law was lifted in 1987 — torture still exists in the nation, since Hung died of torture, while Cheng and Chiu have both said that they were tortured to extract the confessions that led to their death sentence.
“Besides the issue of torture, reforms should be made in giving prisoners proper medical treatment — for instance, your former president Chen Shui-bian [陳水扁] is suffering because he has not received proper treatment,” Shetty said.
“Overcrowding in most prisons is also not good for prisoners’ health,” he added.
Shetty said that although Wu listened to him closely and expressed agreement, he remains skeptical about whether the vice president is serious about making changes.
“In AI, we go by actions, not words,” he added.
Asked about recent public calls for capital punishment for Cheng Chieh (鄭捷), the suspect in the deaths of four people in a knife attack that also wounded 24 on Taipei’s Mass Rapid Transit system last month, Shetty said that while AI members would stand in sympathy and solidarity with victims and their families, “we do not support the death penalty.”
“When we started the anti-death-penalty campaign three decades ago, there were only 30 countries without the death penalty. Now, there are only about 30 countries that still have it,” he said. “Research shows that the death penalty has nothing to do with the crime rate. In fact, the crime rate has fallen in many countries where the death penalty was abolished.”
“The question to ask is why the government is unable to prevent the crime in the first place,” he added.
Shetty also urged Taiwanese to show more concern about human rights violations in China.
“Taiwan has geographical proximity to China, which has grown economically, but does not respect human rights,” he said. “Taiwan shows the contrast: You have economic growth with human rights protection.”
“However, if you want to sustain economic growth and social stability, you need to have more freedom,” Shetty said.
POLITICAL AGENDA: Beijing’s cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival events are part of a ‘cultural united front’ aimed at promoting unification with Taiwan, academics said Local authorities in China have been inviting Taiwanese to participate in cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations centered around ideals of “family and nation,” a move Taiwanese academics said politicizes the holiday to promote the idea of “one family” across the Taiwan Strait. Sources said that China’s Fujian Provincial Government is organizing about 20 cross-strait-themed events in cities including Quanzhou, Nanping, Sanming and Zhangzhou. In Zhangzhou, a festival scheduled for Wednesday is to showcase Minnan-language songs and budaixi (布袋戲) glove puppetry to highlight cultural similarities between Taiwan and the region. Elsewhere, Jiangsu Province is hosting more than 10 similar celebrations in Taizhou, Changzhou, Suzhou,
The Republic of China (ROC) is celebrating its 114th Double Ten National Day today, featuring military parades and a variety of performances and speeches in front of the Presidential Office in Taipei. The Taiwan Taiko Association opened the celebrations with a 100-drummer performance, including young percussionists. As per tradition, an air force Mirage 2000 fighter jet flew over the Presidential Office as a part of the performance. The Honor Guards of the ROC and its marching band also heralded in a military parade. Students from Taichung's Shin Min High School then followed with a colorful performance using floral imagery to represent Taiwan's alternate name
COGNITIVE WARFARE: Chinese fishing boats transmitting fake identification signals are meant to test Taiwan’s responses to different kinds of perceived incursions, a report said Chinese vessels are transmitting fake signals in Taiwan’s waters as a form of cognitive warfare, testing Taipei’s responses to various types of incursions, a report by the Institute for the Study of War said on Friday. Several Chinese fishing vessels transmitted fake automatic identification system (AIS) signals in Taiwan’s waters last month, with one mimicking a Russian warship and another impersonating a Chinese law enforcement vessel, the report said. Citing data from Starboard Maritime Intelligence, the report said that throughout August and last month, the Chinese fishing boat Minshiyu 06718 (閩獅漁06718) sailed through the Taiwan Strait while intermittently transmitting its own AIS
CHINESE INFILTRATION: Medical logistics is a lifeline during wartime and the reported CCP links of a major logistics company present a national security threat, an expert said The government would bolster its security check system to prevent China from infiltrating the nation’s medical cold chain, a national security official said yesterday. The official, who wished to stay anonymous, made the remarks after the Chinese-language magazine Mirror Media (鏡周刊) reported that Pharma Logistics (嘉里醫藥物流) is in charge of the medical logistics of about half of the nation’s major hospitals, including National Taiwan University Hospital and Taipei Veterans General Hospital. The company’s parent, Kerry TJ Logistics Co (嘉里大榮物流), is associated with the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the
RSS