As well as aiming to abolish the death penalty and legitimize gay marriages, a draft bill of the basic human rights law (人權基本法) seen by the Taipei Times would also give citizens the right to decide constitutional issues in referendums.
The draft, which is still being considered by the Cabinet, lays out the basic rights of the people and includes already passed measures and legislation the government has proposed.
The draft is an integrated version of the proposals drafted by the Presidential Office's human rights advisory group and the Ministry of Justice.
One of the most controversial measures is to end capital punishment.
But as it stands, the draft states only the intention to abolish executions and sets no timetable for them to be phased out.
Capital punishment could only be used on those committing the most hideous, violent crimes, according to the draft.
The draft also prohibits executions for those under the age of 18 and pregnant women.
To compensate for the abolition of the death penalty, the Cabinet has already approved draft amendments to the criminal code which would make it more difficult for death-row inmates to get parole. But it has also announced new anti-terror legislation which includes crimes punishable by death.
The draft also expands the rights of homosexuals, allowing them to get married and adopt children.
The draft also touches on the contentious issue of referendums. It stipulates that everyone should have the right to vote on public policy, legislation and constitutional issues through referendums.
The Cabinet has approved a draft referendum law that would allow the various parties, with the approval of the legislature, to call for a referendum on a wide variety of issues, including those of sovereignty. A rival bill presented by the pan-blue camp regulates referendums much more strictly.
The government should undertake to guarantee that the rights enunciated in the draft would be exercised without discrimination of any kind with regard to race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status, according to the draft.
The Cabinet is expected to approve a draft amendments to the Immigration Law today which would make it easier for foreign professionals to work in Taiwan and give permanent residency to those who invest a certain amount of money in the country.
Other provisions affect the status of foreigners. For example, foreigners will be protected from deportation unless they have enjoyed due legal process. It also allows, for the first time, for foreigners to claim political asylum.
The government is working on a refugee and asylum law which would grant asylum rights to foreigners, with the exception of Chinese nationals. There is currently no provision in Taiwanese law to grant people asylum.
The draft also recognizes working women's right to receive special care before and after the childbirth and maternity leave with pay.
Legislation passed last year requires all work places to set up a nursery facility where mothers can take care of their babies and leave for parents with children under three years old, but enforcement of the law is still weak.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods