The Housing Act (住宅法) should be amended to clarify the meaning of residency rights, establish an appeals system for their violation and ban discrimination, human rights advocates said yesterday, as the Ministry of the Interior presses for revisions to facilitate construction of public housing.
Executive agencies and courts have rarely invoked the residency rights guaranteed under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, since the two covenants were ratified by the Legislative Yuan in 2009, Taiwan Alliance Against Forced Evictions executive council member Huang Hui-yu (黃慧瑜) said.
“Even though the twin covenants have held the force of domestic law for years, all sorts of land development cases have faced controversy over forced relocations, a situation which has not changed since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took office,” she said.
“It is important that the twin covenant guarantees be inserted into the Housing Act to clearly define residency rights as being different from property rights,” said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Frida Tsai (蔡培慧), one of the amendments’ sponsors along with DPP legislators Yu Mei-nu (尤美女) and Kolas Yotaka.
Lin Yen-tung (林彥彤), a housing specialist for the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, said that while the act already contains a provision guaranteeing residency rights, implementation has been hampered by the lack of a clear definition.
“Right now the government only talks about resettlement, but not about how existing residency rights should be protected and whether there is a just reason behind demands that people leave,” he said, calling for the act’s residency rights to be defined as corresponding to the definition in the twin covenants and related documents.
“There are all sorts of development plans which can result in forced relocations, but the process of assessment does not include residency rights, such as whether there are historical reasons behind a settlement,” he said.
Anti-discrimination provisions are necessary to guarantee poorer citizens access to private rental housing, Homeless of Taiwan executive council member Lee Wan-chen (李宛真) said.
“For poor people close to the bottom of society, finding rental housing is a series of hurdles — even if you already have money to pay rent or the government will pay for you, you still run into multiple levels of discrimination,” she said.
She added that in the experience of her group — which helps homeless people reintegrate into society — many landlords refuse to consider older renters and often arbitrarily increase rents to drive away poorer applicants.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
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