On Dec. 10, 1948, the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Sixty years later, Taiwan prides itself on its peaceful democratization. However, many human rights and media watchdogs, both local and international, have expressed concerns over an increase in human rights violations and restrictions on civil liberties since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office in May.
RESTRICTIONS ON CIVIL LIBERTIES
Freedom House has called for an independent investigation into the violent clashes between the police and protesters during the visit of Chinese cross-strait negotiator Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) early last month.
PHOTO: AFP
Amnesty International has asked that the Control Yuan address the serious concerns raised by civil society in Taiwan and that the Ma administration end the practice of using the Assembly and Parade Law (集會遊行法) to deny freedom of assembly.
The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) has expressed deep concern over the detention and attacks against citizens protesting peacefully during Chen’s visit, describing such arrests and violence as “grave violations of human rights, under the pretext of national security.”
The FIDH has requested that the National Police Agency and National Security Bureau be held responsible for violating their legal obligations.
The FIDH has also called on the Ma administration to amend the Assembly and Parade Law, saying it is “a legacy of the martial law era.”
In particular, the group has asked the government to abolish the requirement for mandatory permits and instead adopt a system of voluntary reporting.
It also says that the clause that restricts assemblies from being held in certain areas gives the authorities too much discretion to restrict people’s freedom of association and freedom of expression.
Lin Chia-fan (林佳範), deputy chairman of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, said the draft amendments to the Assembly and Parade Law proposed by the administration were far from perfect and his association would continue to push for more relaxed legislation.
The Executive Yuan last week approved amendments to the law that would remove the power to grant or deny protest permits from the police, but would offer them new powers to bar or alter demonstration plans in certain cases.
Lin berated the administration for taking drastic and unnecessary measures during Chen’s visit, including clearing highway lanes by force, confiscating and damaging private property and restricting the freedom of citizens’ movement.
While the police should remain politically neutral and serve the interests of the people, Lin said citizens were restricted from displaying or carrying the national flag and peacefully expressing their opinions.
“It is like we are reliving the Martial Law era,” he said. “Those who carry China’s five-star flag were left alone, but those carrying the Republic of China’s flag were harassed and even attacked. It is outright suppression of personal freedom and only shows degradation of human rights.”
Lin said Ma could have turned the demonstrations to his advantage and used them as a bargaining chip with Chen, but he decided to stand together with Chen and suppress the Taiwanese.
As the Ma administration did not respond positively to the demands of the Wild Strawberry Student Movement, students decided on Sunday to leave the Liberty Square where they staged the sit-in, he said.
Lin said that the students could learn one lesson from the month-long demonstration: A one-party government can get away with almost anything if there is no powerful opposition in place to serve as an effective check-and-balance.
“But the protest is far from over,” Lin said. “The students have started the fire and now they are spreading it. When there comes a day for them to return to the streets, they will quickly reassemble.”
SUPPRESSION OF PRESS FREEDOM
In addition to suppressing freedom of expression of citizens, journalists covering the demonstrations were assaulted and some photojournalists were pressured to help find potential suspects in the rallies during Chen’s visit.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has expressed deep concern over the detention of an independent documentary filmmaker for filming Chen in a hotel, and the assault of a television reporter by police who reportedly mistook him for a protester during the Nov. 16 rally.
In addition, the IFJ condemned the Ma administration for “apparent interference in state-owned media” and urged government authorities to refrain from intervening in personnel decisions, operations and news coverage of media outlets as doing so could jeopardize editorial independence.
The Association of Taiwan Journalists (ATJ) has denounced the restrictions and violent treatment of journalists and civilians during the protests.
The ATJ described the government’s clamp down on the media’s right to report as a “media restraint equivalent to that seen in an authoritarian regime,” saying that it seriously sabotaged Taiwan’s image as a country with free press.
ATJ chairman Leon Chuang (莊豐嘉) said that he suspected the recent slew of incidents would have a negative impact on Taiwan’s ranking of press freedom next year.
Chuang said he felt like Taiwanese society had regressed 20 years to the Martial Law era.
Back then, the KMT government was worried about the negative image martial law would bring to the country, Chuang said, but now the KMT administration does not seem to care much about public opinion.
“For a long time, Taiwan did not need to ask the international community for help in terms of human rights violations because the opposition and the local media were powerful enough to keep the government in check,” he said. “But now, things seem to have changed.”
The pressure exerted by international organizations, therefore, played a pivotal role in restraining the KMT government, Chuang said.
FLAWED JUDICIAL PROCEDURES
The rights of individuals before the law has also became an issue. A substantial number of foreign experts on Taiwan have expressed their deep concern about the recent series of detentions of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) politicians and urged reform in two open letters published by the Taipei Times.
They criticized the pretrial detentions as a “severe contravention of the writ of habeas corpus and a basic violation of due process, justice and the rule of law.”
They also pointed out that prosecutor’s offices “evidently leak detrimental information to the press” and this kind of “trial by press” is a violation of the basic standards of judicial procedures.
Lin Feng-cheng (林峰正), president of the Judicial Reform Foundation, said that although pretrial custody is legal in Taiwan, the damage done to the detainee’s reputation during the incarceration is difficult to restore even if the person was later proven innocent.
Lin proposed that the maximum time the accused may be detained for the purpose of investigation be reduced from four months to 20 days, as in Japan.
Such a reduction would give adequate protection to the rights of the accused while still providing reasonable time for a criminal investigation, he said.
“It would compel police and prosecutors to collect solid evidence before requesting detention,” he said. “It would make them think twice before detaining the suspect because once the 20 days are up, they must either indict or release the suspect.”
However, police and prosecutors seem to be convinced that pretrial custody is the best way to expedite indictments, Lin said, adding that some prosecutors even said they used pretrial detention as a tool to “teach the detainee a lesson.”
“It serves as a form of punishment because the living conditions at the detention center are awful,” Lin said. “Some of the inhumane treatment includes having their head shaved and being denied a hot shower for several days during the winter.”
Lin also urged the administration to establish a protocol for law enforcement personnel that would take human rights into consideration before a suspect was handcuffed.
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