Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Yu Mei-nu (尤美女), along with nearly 50 civil groups, yesterday called for the scrapping of the draft bill for the religious basic act, which they said would elevate religion to a status above the Constitution, after the legislature postponed its review amid public outrage.
The draft seems to be based on a misunderstanding of the Constitution, Taiwan Association for Human Rights chairman Weng Kuo-yan (翁國彥) told a news conference held by civil groups yesterday.
“The protection of religious freedom, as stipulated by Constitutional Interpretation No. 490, is designed to ensure people’s right to choose their religious faith, rather than placing religious freedom above other human rights or granting religious groups privileges that normal organizations do not have.”
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights
Under the proposed bill, religious groups enjoy “religious autonomy,” which exempts them from government oversight in a variety of areas ranging from land use and education to financial and personnel management.
Many people are reportedly concerned that it could lead to corruption, environmental degradation, religious discrimination and other human rights violations in the name of religion.
Since the draft bill would ban courts from interfering with religious groups’ doctrines and personnel appointments, they could refuse to hire non-believers or those who do not conform to their doctrines, such as LGBT people or women who have had abortions, Gender Equality Education Platform (性別平等教育大平台) manager Chang Ming-hsu (張明旭) said.
It could also undermine the quality of education, because the draft, which allows religion to be preached at schools, would turn campuses into “a battlefield for religions,” preventing politically neutral education, he said.
Clauses that allow religious groups to obtain use of land and construct religious buildings without adhering to the Mortuary Service Administration Act (殯葬管理條例), Building Act (建築法), Fire Services Act (消防法) or Land Act (土地法) could wreak havoc on the environment, Environmental Jurists Association secretary-general Lin Tzu-lin (林子琳) said.
“The bill even grants religious groups legal use of public land that they have illegally occupied for five years,” she said. “It could encourage illegal land use.”
“This draft bill is ridiculous. It undercuts and overrules many other laws. It is an embarrassment that our lawmakers have proposed such an act,” Yu said, urging legislators to drop the proposal.
The draft bill was jointly introduced by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) and Ma Wen-chun (馬文君), and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Tai-hua (林岱樺). It was originally backed by more than 30 legislators.
Due to growing public ire, Wang and 17 DPP legislators had withdrawn their support as of yesterday evening, and the review of the proposed bill was yesterday removed from the agenda of an Internal Administration Committee meeting hours before it was due to take place.
Huang, who is the convener of the committee, on Tuesday said that her decision to change the agenda was to “prevent religion from being stigmatized,” and that the bill should be reviewed after legislators reconsider the parts that raised concern to “make it more comprehensive.”
Additional reporting by CNA
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