Civil rights groups from East Asian nations participated in a regional session of the International Tribunal on Eviction yesterday as part of efforts to encourage international dialogue and raise awareness of housing rights.
About 100 people gathered for a presentation of eight forced displacement cases before a panel of five jurors at the former site of Taipei’s Huaguang Community (華光社區) — which was demolished in 2013 in controversial circumstances — with tents for different groups erected across the plot.
The tribunal is an opinion court organized by campaigners which seeks to raise awareness of housing rights, with yesterday’s jurors including Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Frida Tsai (蔡培慧) and Taoyuan District Court judge Sun Kian-Ti (孫建智), along with three jurors from international rights groups.
Jurors asked questions and made suggestions to the campaigners representing cases ranging from Hong Kong’s rooftop tenants to Bangkok’s Pom Mahakan community case to Taiwan’s land development plans connected with a proposed expansion of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.
“We express our solidarity with people who have lost their houses and might lose them in the future. We are here to give them a voice, not to talk on their behalf, but to have them talk about themselves,” said Soha Ben Slama, one of the international jurors and the Tunisian coordinator for the International Alliance of Inhabitants, a social movement network.
“Even though the tribunal does not have any legal effect, it can help people see the seriousness of the problem, because these kind of cases do not just occur domestically,” Sun said, adding that local judges have often avoided using international treaties, such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which was passed by the Legislative Yuan in 2009.
“These kinds of event help us see that violations of housing rights are everywhere and are more serious than we imagine. This is an international human rights issue and we all can do something to address it,” Sun said.
921 EARTHQUAKE: The magnitude 7.3 quake left 2,456 people dead and 10,718 injured, while 53,661 houses were fully destroyed and 53,024 houses damaged The Central Weather Bureau yesterday received about 50,000 views on Facebook after it posted the data that it collected on Sept. 21, 1999, when the nation was devastated by a magnitude 7.3 earthquake. The data showed that the 921 Earthquake hit the nation at 1:47am, with the epicenter being 7km southwest of the bureau’s quake detection center in Nantou County’s Yuchi Township (魚池) at a depth of 8km. The quake left 2,456 people dead and 10,718 injured, while 53,661 houses were fully destroyed and 53,024 houses damaged, with the cost of the damage estimated at NT$300 billion (US$10.8 billion at the current
British newspaper The Mail on Sunday reported that Prince Charles met with Bruno Wang (汪家興), a Taiwanese fugitive who describes himself as a Chinese philanthropist and donated ￡500,000 (US$683,522) to the prince’s charity, the Prince’s Foundation. The newspaper reported that Wang is wanted in Taiwan on charges related to money laundering and being a fugitive from justice, allegations he denies, and drew comparisons between Wang and the Russian banker Dmitry Leus. Investigation and cooperation with foreign authorities have found that Bruno Wang’s father, Andrew Wang (汪傳浦), had stashed proceeds from a scandal involving the procurement of Lafayette frigates in 61 bank accounts,
AT ODDS: The KMT called on the government to seek bilateral dialogue with Beijing to resolve the issue that led to the ban on custard apple and wax apple imports Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials and lawmakers yesterday condemned China’s sudden ban on imports of custard apples and wax apples from Taiwan as “obvious political retaliation,” while the opposition called for a scientific investigation into Beijing’s claim to have found pests in imports of the fruits. China earlier yesterday announced a ban on the importation of the two fruits from today, citing repeated discoveries of Planococcus minor, a type of mealybug. The announcement follows a similar ban on Taiwanese pineapples imposed in February. At least Beijing gave a few days’ notice when it banned pineapple imports, an unnamed government official said yesterday. This time
BY OTHER MEANS: China could see CPTPP membership as a means of circumventing trade restrictions imposed by the US, amid an ongoing trade dispute between them The US could invoke a clause in its trade agreement with Canada and Mexico to block China’s application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a government official said yesterday. Under Article 32.10 of the Exceptions and General Provisions of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), if either Canada or Mexico enter a free-trade agreement with a nonmarket economy — such as China — the US could withdraw from the agreement. “If that clause applies to multilateral free-trade agreements such as the CPTPP — which Mexico and Canada are members of — that might be cause for the two
RSS