Despite ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Social and Cultural Rights (ICSCR), and the legislature’s passage of a law to make them legally binding, human rights activists, lawyers and students who attended a workshop on their implementation yesterday said that most of the nation’s officials and politicians still don’t know much about them.
“There are many laws in Taiwan that are actually in violation of the ICCPR and the ICSCR, but the violations are somehow not noticed,” said Huang Man-ting (黃曼婷), a university student who attended yesterday’s seminar.
For instance, township mayoral elections will be canceled after townships become districts in counties that are to be upgraded to special municipalities by the end of the year.
“Well, some lecturers in the seminar think that it’s questionable whether such a change is in accordance with the two covenants, because that’s a restriction of people’s rights to participate in politics,” he said.
Huang said both the government and the legislature supported passage of the two covenants only to please the public.
“Politicians turn a blind eye on violations either because of their ignorance or because they care more about their own political interests,” she said.
Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty executive director Lin Hsin-yi (林欣怡) panned the position of Tseng Yun-fu (曾勇夫) — who is to be sworn-in as Minister of Justice today — on the death penalty.
“Tseng said that whether capital punishment should be abolished should be decided when the public reaches a consensus, and that the ministry under his leadership would not have its own opinion,” Lin said. “This is in violation of the ICCPR because it stipulates that a signatory state should eventually abolish the death penalty.”
Tseng’s position not only violated the ICCPR, but it also went against both President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Premier Wu Den-yih’s (吳敦義) positions, as both of them have stated that ending the death penalty is the government’s long-term policy objective, he said.
Nigel Li (李念祖), an attorney and lecturer in the seminar, agreed.
He said that although Article 6 of the ICCPR provides provisional measures to countries with the death penalty in the transitional period, the covenant’s ultimate objective is to require all signatory state parties to abolish capital punishment.
Shih Yi-hsiang (施逸翔), a research assistant at Soochow University’s department of political science, said the two covenants were ratified and enacted in such a hurry that “both the government and the people don’t really know what they are about.”
“So I think a seminar like this is a very good chance for the public — including myself — to learn more about them,” he said. “I think the government should take responsibility for educating the public about the ICCPR and the ICSCR too.”
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
Taiwan successfully defended its women’s 540 kilogram title and won its first-ever men’s 640 kg title at the 2026 World Indoor Tug of War Championships in Taipei yesterday. In the women’s event, Taiwan’s eight-person squad reached the final following a round-robin preliminary round and semifinals featuring teams from Ukraine, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, the Basque Country and South Korea. In the finals, they swept the Basque team 2-0, giving the team composed mainly of National Taiwan Normal University students and graduates its second championship in a row, and its fourth in five years. Team captain
When Paraguayan opposition lawmaker Leidy Galeano returned from an all-expenses-paid tour of six Chinese cities late last year, she was convinced Paraguay risked missing out on major economic gains by sticking with longtime ally Taipei over Beijing — a message that participants on the trip heard repeatedly from Chinese officials. “Everything I saw there, I wanted for my country,” said Galeano, a member of the newly-formed Yo Creo party whose senior figures have spoken favorably about China. This trip and others like it — which people familiar with the visits said were at the invitation of the Chinese consulate in Sao Paulo
RSS