A national human rights commission should be established as an independent government agency, human rights advocates said yesterday, adding that they are also open to supporting its establishment under the auspices of the Control Yuan, with sufficient safeguards.
“Even though the Control Yuan has investigative powers, it rarely uses them, and membership has devolved into a political sinecure appointment, which no longer plays a monitoring role compared with other government bodies,” Taiwan Association for Human Rights secretary-general Chiu Ee-ling (邱伊翎) said, adding that long-standing distrust of the Control Yuan makes advocates hesitant to allow it to have jurisdiction over a possible human rights commission.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has pledged to establish an independent commission to monitor and prevent human rights abuses, and Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) in January said that plans for its establishment would be finalized this year.
“The Control Yuan focuses on corruption and other illegal activities, not the kind of issues that we protest. Many human rights abuses are legal and addressing them requires legal amendments, but the Control Yuan tends not to address those kinds of issues,” Chiu said.
Establishing the commission under the Control Yuan would make it difficult for the commission to address abuses by the private sector, Chiu said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Yu Mei-nu (尤美女), who has sponsored human rights legislation, has withdrawn her support for establishing the commission under the Presidential Office.
Yu last month called for establishing the body under the Control Yuan to take advantage of the institution’s constitutionally guaranteed independence and avoid expanding the president’s authority.
Chiu called for the commission to be established separately from other government agencies, adding that advocates would wait to see what legal language Yu uses when issuing a response.
Protection against executive interference could be guaranteed through legal safeguards in the commission’s incorporation act, including the authority to draft its own budget in line with Academia Sinica, she said.
Members of the commission should be required to pass certain preconditions, Chiu added.
The commission would not have the Control Yuan’s constitutional investigative powers, but it would be able to conduct reviews, write reports and promote human rights education efforts, she said.
Covenants Watch chief executive officer Huang Yi-bee (黃怡碧) said incorporation under the Control Yuan could be possible if coupled with substantial Control Yuan reform, including new appointment rules to exclude political patronage and giving the branch “two hands” to reward civil servants with promotions while punishing indiscretions.
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