The Cabinet’s Transitional Justice Commission aims to complete the preliminary work for redressing unjust judicial cases in just two weeks, a commission member said yesterday.
The agency would first tackle the archives of governmental agencies, followed by those of political parties, commission Deputy Chairman Chang Tien-chin (張天欽) said, adding that commission Chairman Huang Huang-hsiung (黃煌雄) had on Friday last week already led a group of commission members to visit the National Development Council’s (NDC) National Archives Administration in New Taipei City’s Sinjhuang District (新莊).
According to the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice (促進轉型正義條例) passed in December last year, the commission is empowered to probe the political archives of any political party, their affiliated organizations and entities, and to make them part of the national archives after a specified deliberation procedure.
Photo provided by the National Archives and Records Administration Development Council
However, it would take more time to tackle the political archives belonging to political parties, as the collection process is more intricate, Chang said.
The commission would also re-examine criminal litigation cases that might violate the nation’s democratic and constitutional order or the fair trial principle, he said.
The task of redressing miscarriages of justice can be divided into three aspects: the 228 Incident in 1947, the White Terror era and the restoration of people’s damaged rights, he said, adding that the commission plans to complete its preliminary work on these areas in two weeks.
The commission has discussed related matters with the 228 Memorial Foundation, the National Human Rights Museum, the Ministry of Culture and the courts, and has reviewed legal documents about sedition and espionage charges made during the Martial Law period, Chang said.
The restoration of damaged rights would be conducted by the courts, he added.
As the commission is required by the act to present a complete report to the premier in two years, it would expedite the investigations, he said.
NDC Deputy Minister Tseng Hsu-cheng (曾旭正) said the commission visited on Friday to inspect the condition of the political archives, adding that there were 20km’s worth of documents and thousands of images.
The archives are to be moved to a new building that is under construction in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), Tseng said, adding that the facility is expected to hold documents that would fill 100km of shelf space.
After the draft for a political data act is passed, the archives would become accessible to members of the public, Tseng added.
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
Taiwan’s coffee community has launched a “one-person-one-e-mail” campaign, calling for people to send a protest-e-mail to the World Coffee Championships (WCC) urging it to redesignate Taiwanese competitors as from “Taiwan,” rather than “Chinese Taipei.” The call followed sudden action last week after the WCC changed all references to Taiwanese competitors from “Taiwan” to “Chinese Taipei,” including recent World Latte Art champion Bala (林紹興), who won the World Latte Art Championship in San Diego earlier this month. When Bala received the trophy, he was referred to as representing Taiwan, as well as in the announcement on the WCC’s Web site, until it
RSS