The Council of Grand Justices convened a meeting yesterday to review a constitutional interpretation request filed by the legislative caucus of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to have the fingerprinting provision in the Household Registration Law (
Article 8 of the law stipulates that people claiming new national identification cards must be fingerprinted, which critics say encroaches upon their basic human rights.
DPP Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (
The Council of Grand Justices will continue to review the matter today.
Gao said after reporting to the Council of Grand Justices that a majority of people support fingerprinting, which he said reflects "a failure of human rights education."
He equated fingerprinting to strip searches, saying that the policy is akin to treating everyone like a criminal suspect. He added that fingerprinting violates people's inalienable right to privacy.
The lawmaker also said that if the government is allowed to use social order as an excuse to strip the people of their rights, then there is nothing stopping it from using other national security reasons to encroach upon people's other rights.
The government originally planned to require people to be fingerprinted when they apply for the new national identification card which is set to be issued from today.
On May 30, the DPP filed the constitutional interpretation request after human rights groups expressed concerns with the fingerprinting policy.
In view of the limited time available, the council on June 10 ordered a moratorium on the policy until it releases its interpretation.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Su Jia-chyuan (
Su made the remarks on the sidelines of an award presentation ceremony as the Council of Grand Justices began earlier in the day to review a constitutional interpretation request filed by the DPP to have the fingerprinting provision in the Household Registration Law invalidated because of concerns that it violates human rights.
The ministry had planned to require that people be fingerprinted when claiming the new version of the national identification card originally set to begin to be issued from today. However, after the legislative caucus of the DPP requested an interpretation May 30, the Council of Grand Justices on June 10 placed a moratorium on the policy until it reviews the request and releases its interpretation.
Noting that a majority of people support the fingerprinting policy, Su said, the ministry hopes the grand justices will deliver a ruling as soon as possible.
He pointed out that in the UK, an ID card bill which includes a fingerprinting requirement recently passed its second reading in the House of Commons. He noted that even the UK, a country noted for championing human rights, is rethinking its policy on fingerprinting.
In addition, the US now requires arriving visitors to be fingerprinted, Su said, adding that many people who oppose fingerprinting in Taiwan comply with the fingerprinting regulation when traveling to the US. These people are adopting a "double standard," he said.
As many industrial countries are now changing their policies on fingerprinting to protect the security of the people and the nation, Su urged the Taiwanese people to think about whether Taiwan, faced with a growing number of Chinese and Southeast Asian immigrants, should maintain the fingerprint requirement.
"The concept of human rights changes, and we need to carefully consider whether sticking to the old human rights standards will lead to social disorder," Su said.
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