The government plans to establish a national human rights institution to meet with the international Paris Principles standards, Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said yesterday.
The institution would promote and protect human rights and aim to prevent major violations, Chen said at the opening ceremony of the meeting for the review of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights report.
On Dec. 10, 2009, Taiwan adopted two international human rights treaties, which were the basis for establishing a human rights reporting system, and in April 2012, presented its first national human rights report.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
Taiwan invited independent human rights bodies from the international community to visit Taipei in 2013 to review the report.
The review of Taiwan’s second national report in Taipei began yesterday and concludes on Friday. It is being broadcast live.
“Human rights are no longer an issue limited to closed-door discussions,” said the Ministry of Justice, which is working with the Presidential Office’s Human Rights Consultative Committee, chaired by Chen, to host the review meeting.
Chen said that three of the nine core international human rights treaties have not yet become law, including the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
The other two are the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, he said.
The government will make every effort to enact the legislation, Chen said.
The Paris Principles are key evaluation criteria for national human rights institutions. They were adopted unanimously in a resolution by the UN Human Rights Commission in 1993 and in the final acts of the Human Rights Conference that same year.
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
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
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BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
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