The second round of the international review of Taiwan’s implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights concluded on Jan. 18. The government deserves praise for taking a big step toward respect for universal human rights values.
However, if the government were to merely pay attention to the formal review process and concluding opinions, but forget to take the two covenants as key references in the practical implementation of government administration and judicial decisions, the protection of human rights is likely to remain superficial.
Today, one of the difficulties facing the concrete implementation of the two covenants lies in the fact that, despite effort to incorporate them into domestic law with the Act to Implement the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (公民與政治權利國際公約及經濟社會文化權利國際公約施行法), its attitude toward the implementation of the act and its contents is clearly perfunctory.
First, as Taiwan is unable to make international agreements take legal effect through formal channels established by international law, it is necessary to use a special model to link them to domestic legislation.
However, if Taiwan were to apply this model with the implementation act that fully accepted the content of the two covenants to other general or technical international agreements — such as the act to implement the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime that is being drafted — that could dilute the significance of the implementation act for the two covenants.
In particular, since Taiwan passed the Treaty Ratification Act (條約締結法) in 2015 there have been regulations on how international agreements can become effective domestically when they cannot be exchanged or deposited. The government therefore needs to clarify how to separate the functions of the implementation act and treaty ratification act.
Second, the implementation of the covenants requires a thorough understanding of the rights and obligations they bring, as well as on the establishment of basic standards. However, since the act implementing the two covenants was passed, the government has failed to promote the in-depth and sophisticated legal norms and systems necessary to the practical implementation of human rights. Consequently, human rights protection exists in name only, while everyone continues to promote their own views on controversial issues, such as the death penalty and same-sex marriage.
Third, the core objective of the two covenants’ implementation act is to declare that the covenants have taken legal effect in Taiwan, but after the legislature passed the implementation act in 2009, there has been insufficient discussion about how the courts should apply the two covenants and there is a lack of consensus. This has made it difficult for the public to directly cite the two covenants as a means to safeguard their rights. For example, if government agencies fail to improve administrative measures in accordance with the covenants, it will be difficult for the public to seek remedies through current judicial procedures.
The road toward protection of human rights is long and winding, and it includes constant challenges and evolution. Taiwan should not be content with the incorporation of the two covenants into domestic law or the building of an international review mechanism. Instead, it should step forward to consider the key elements of how to internalize human rights into all domestic laws and policies.
Wu Chuan-feng is an associate research professor in the Institutum Iurisprudentiae at Academia Sinica.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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