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Cabinet withdraws plans for rights memorial hall

The Cabinet decided yesterday to withdraw two draft bills on the establishment of a national human rights memorial hall proposed by the former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government.

Executive Yuan Spokeswoman Vanessa Shih (史亞平) said the Cabinet made the move at President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) request.

The DPP government had drafted an amendment to the Organic Law of the Presidential Office (總統府組織法) and initiated a draft organic bill of national human rights memorial hall in 2003.

It expected the memorial hall, which would have been under the administration of the Presidential Office, to be a valuable showcase of the country’s human rights history and to educate the public about human rights. But the two draft bills failed to pass the legislature.

Lee Yung-chih (李永熾), a history professor at National Cheng-chi University’s Graduate Institute of Taiwan History and organizer of the hall, told the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) on Wednesday that the withdrawal of the bill proved the Ma administration was an “anti-human rights government.”

Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said that withdrawing the bills did not mean that Ma did not support human rights.
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