Domestic and international human rights activists urged President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday to honor human rights through actions rather than words.
Ma is scheduled to sign the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) into law today.
“The ratification and signing of the two treaties is an important step in Taiwan’s human rights history. It not only gives them the status of domestic law, but also a promise to the world,” Taiwan Association for Human Rights chairman Lin Chia-fan (林佳範) told a news conference. “What’s more important, however, is whether the contents of the covenants will be implemented, not the rituals.”
More than 20 people representing human rights groups from Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, Cambodia, Mongolia and Taiwan attended the press conference in Taipei.
The two treaties were signed by ambassador to the UN Liu Chieh (劉鍇) in 1967, but were only ratified by the legislature in March.
Lin said the proposed amendment to the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) would be a test case of the government’s determination to implement the covenants.
The Assembly and Parade Act was enacted in 1988, the year after martial law was lifted, to “maintain social order.”
As the government and lawmakers across party lines agree the law needs overhauling, the government proposed an amendment that activists have criticized for being tougher than the original law.
“To honor the spirit of the two international human rights covenants, the government should change its mentality and truly revise the law to protect people’s rights to freedom of assembly, instead of restricting it like the current law and the Cabinet amendment do,” Lin said.
Chalida Tajaroensuk, executive director of Thailand’s People’s Empowerment Foundation, welcomed Taiwan’s ratification of the covenants, but agreed with Lin that laws need to be amended in accordance with the two treaties.
She urged the government to come up with “an action plan and timeline for when the Taiwanese government will complete what.”
Tajaroensuk also reminded the government that the “death penalty was in violation of international human rights standards” and should be quickly abolished.
Amnesty International Taiwan chairman Peter Huang (黃文雄) said that the government should keep a list of laws that are not in accordance with international human rights standards and revise them accordingly.
“An important clause in the treaties is that the signatory country is responsible to educate the people about values laid out in the treaties,” Huang said. “Unfortunately, our civil servants, police, military and intelligence officials are not taught about human rights in school or in on-job training.”
As Taiwan is not a UN member, the representatives all vowed to stand in solidarity with and support Taiwan’s efforts to advance human rights as members of international civil society.
Ma met the activists at the Presidential Office later yesterday morning and told them that he had been doing his best to protect human rights for one year.
He said the Assembly and Parade Act would be amended to give the public more freedom. Ma also said he has asked the Cabinet to reduce the fine for violators of the act.
“We are doing our best to promote Taiwan’s human rights,” he said. “We are willing to learn from you and hope that every country in the world will enjoy the full protection of human rights.”
On Dec. 10 last year, World Human Rights Day, Ma asked the legislature to ratify the two UN conventions.
He said yesterday that he has been very concerned about the human rights issue during his time as minister of justice, Taipei mayor and now president. When he was justice minister, Ma said he began conducting opinion polls on the death penalty, blocked the execution of three death row inmates and approved their requests for special appeals three times.
“It was unprecedented in our country’s legal history,” he said.
Ma said that as Taipei mayor, he had established more than 80 modern interrogation rooms at the city’s police precincts to record the questioning process.
“Torture does not exist in Taipei City any more,” he said. “The purpose of video recording is to protect human rights and avoid wrong accusations against the police.”
He said that as mayor he had also established a human rights advisory committee, making the city the only local government with such an agency.
He said he had also devoted a chapter of his campaign platform to human rights to oppose illegal eavesdropping, government intervention in the media and prosecutors’ selective litigation.
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