A representative for nearly 8,000 Vietnamese fishers suing Formosa Plastics Group (FPG) for marine pollution yesterday said they would fight a Taipei District Court decision to dismiss the case.
Vietnamese-Australian priest Peter Nguyen, who is representing the Vietnamese fishers, told a news conference in Taipei that the district court had accepted NT$1.2 million (US$39,234) in payment for the case, but on Wednesday dismissed the suit on grounds that it had no jurisdiction over it.
While FPG had settled with the Vietnamese government over the 2016 pollution incident involving its member, Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corp, the fishers whose livelihoods were the most affected had not received any money, Nguyen said.
Photo: Liu Li-jen, Taipei Times
The conglomerate paid the Vietnamese government US$500 million after admitting that its dumping of toxic waste into the sea caused ecological damage to 250km of the Vietnamese coastline.
After efforts to take the group to court in Vietnam met with government intervention, the fishers brought their case to Taiwan , hoping to receive justice, Nguyen said.
Nguyen is currently working at the Vietnamese Migrant and Immigrant Office, which he founded, in Taoyuan’s Bade District (八德).
The office is under the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hsinchu County.
Many had helped the plaintiffs raise the money for the case to be heard and processed by the Taipei District Court, which they considered their last recourse for justice, Nguyen said.
The court’s dismissal of the case, citing lack of jurisdiction, has shattered that hope, he said, but added that he hoped the court would reconsider and uphold humanitarian values and Taiwan’s reputation of abiding by the rule of law.
The case has drawn significant international attention and the court’s decision is severely flawed, as it did not even consider the claims of both parties before dismissing the case, Environmental Jurists Association chairmann Chang Yu-yin (張譽尹) said.
The 40th annual congress of the International Federation for Human Rights, which is being held in Taipei from Monday to today, has supported the appeal, Chang said.
As Formosa Ha Tinh Steel is a member of the conglomerate, the lawsuit does concern Taiwan, Environmental Rights Foundation lawyer Huang Hsin-wen (黃馨雯) said..
The decision to dismiss the case without having heard the claims of both parties contravenes the spirit of the adversarial system, which, under Taiwanese law, is the go-to system for civil cases that are not under exclusive jurisdiction, Huang said.
Taiwanese courts are judicially obligated to accept the case, as a Taiwanese company had polluted the environment in a foreign country, foundation chairman Lin San-chia (林三加) said.
The plaintiff’s choice to believe in the Taiwanese judiciary should be respected, Lin said.
The 2016 pollution incident was a classic case of corporate oversight of human rights, Taiwan Association for Human Rights member Yu Yi-chia (余宜家) said.
The UN has stated that nations must take necessary steps to prevent international corporations from violating the human rights of residents in the foreign nation which they have invested, Covenants Watch convener Huang Song-lih (黃嵩立) said.
The Fancy Frontier manga and anime expo held in Taipei over the weekend has sparked controversy, after a participant allegedly contravened the Act on Offenses Against Sexual Morality (妨害風化罪) by publicly exposing her private parts during a photo shoot. The two-day event opened at the Expo Dome at the Taipei Expo Park on Saturday, attracting numerous comic and anime creators, cosplayers, photographers and fans. Allegedly, a female cosplayer who was not wearing any underwear lifted up her skirt and revealed her private parts at an outdoor photography area near the venue. Event organizers said yesterday that to prevent indecent exposure, they have since
Taiwan might be China’s next target after it has “walled off” Hong Kong from the rest of the world with its new national security legislation, Academia Sinica Institute of Sociology fellow Wu Jieh-min (吳介民) said on Thursday. At a seminar organized by the Economic Democracy Union, the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, the Hong Kong Outlanders and the Judicial Reform Foundation, Wu said that the legislation is simultaneously a fig leaf concealing Beijing’s autocratic rule in Hong Kong and a figurative “Berlin Wall,” denying democratic countries access to Hong Kong. Wu said it is evident that Taiwan would be China’s next target. The
YOUNGEST PATIENT: Cases of botulism have been only sporadically reported over the past few years, with two in 2015, six in 2016 and none in the past three years The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the nation’s first case of infant botulism this year, a four-month-old boy in northern Taiwan, as well as five new cases of Japanese encephalitis confirmed last week. The boy was introduced to homemade solid food in the middle of last month, but began to experience constipation and loss of appetite on June 23, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) said, adding that he was taken to the hospital when he developed a fever and shortness of breath on June 25. In the hospital, the boy also experienced a rapid heartbeat, limb
The National Taiwan Museum’s Railway Department Park in Taipei is to open to the public today. The park in Datong District (大同) near the North Gate (北門, Beimen) is one of the museum’s four branches. During the Japanese colonial era, the site housed the railway department of the Office of the Governor-General of Taiwan’s Bureau of Transportation. After World War II, it served as the headquarters for the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) for several decades. In 2007, it was listed as a national monument under the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act (文化資產保存法). At an opening ceremony yesterday, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung
RSS