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Yu says Cabinet will obey law over fingerprint bank

Despite strong opposition from human rights groups, the Cabinet will forge ahead with the establishment of a national fingerprint bank when it renews national identification cards next year -- if the legislature gives the plan the go-ahead, Premier Yu Shyi-kun said yesterday.

"Our stance on the matter is clear: We're strongly against the idea of fingerprinting people, because we believe such an archive would violate human rights. However, we will do everything in accordance with the law if the legislature decides to support the establishment of the personal image database and fingerprint bank," Yu said.

The Cabinet sent draft amendments to the Household Registration Law (戶籍法) to the legislature about two years ago for further review and final approval.

While the last renewal of identification cards was supposed to take place in 1996, Yu said that it is imperative to carry out the renewal as soon as possible.

Yu made the remarks yesterday morning on the train to Wuchieh township in Ilan County, where the two-day orientation program for new Cabinet officials was held at the National Center for Traditional Arts.

Amendments to the Household Registration Law that were passed in 1997 require all citizens over the age of 14 to submit prints of all 10 fingers upon receipt of their ID. The amendments created an uproar among human rights groups, who said compulsory fingerprinting was a violation of human rights.

As a result, a new amendment to abolish the stipulation regarding fingerprints has been submitted to the Legislative Yuan, but it has not yet been passed.

However, Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南), who was initially reluctant to voice his opinion yesterday, said the move would protect not only individual privacy but also human rights.

"The idea of adding thumbprints to identification cards and passports is different from that of establishing a national fingerprint bank," Chen said.

"The move would help prevent theft of the documents in addition to helping identify their owners," he said.

If human rights groups feel the move to add fingerprints to ID cards and passports violates their personal privacy, Chen said, he wonders why they do not complain about photographs appearing on the cards.
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