Human Rights Watch on Thursday released its annual report for last year, in which it described a “litany of human rights crises” around the world. The report is an opportunity for Taiwan to reflect on domestic and international rights issues that directly concern Taiwanese.
One of the focuses of the report was the abuses against Uighurs in China’s Xinjiang region. China attempts to intimidate Uighurs living abroad, including in Taiwan, by harassing them by telephone or online, or threatening their family members in China. In the most egregious cases, China sends agents to harass or assault rights advocates in other countries. This was demonstrated in attacks in Taipei on Hong Kong democracy advocate Joshua Wong (黃之鋒), singer Denise Ho (何韻詩) and Lam Wing-kei (林榮基), who moved to Taiwan after authorities cracked down on his bookstore in Hong Kong.
Taiwan must continue to speak up for Uighurs trapped in Xinjiang, and advocate for the protection of those living abroad — including in Taiwan.
Also of concern is the deportation of Taiwanese to China when they are arrested overseas. Taiwan’s foreign affairs situation means that countries often capitulate to China on the issue of deporting Taiwanese, and those who face such a fate are likely to face grave human rights contraventions, including arbitrary imprisonment and torture, unfair trials and lack of access to diplomatic services.
Quite often Taiwanese are deported from democratic or rule-of-law countries, and are subjected to arbitrary detention and deportation due to Chinese pressure even though they might have committed no crime. These deportations should be addressed in the UN through allies and like-minded nations.
There are also domestic issues of concern to rights advocates. Migrant workers in domestic services, fishing, farming, manufacturing, food processing and construction continue to be subjected to unfair conditions. While amendments have sought to increase pay, supervise treatment of workers on distant-water fishing vessels and improve living conditions at factories, wages for migrant workers remain lower than the minimum wage. Live-in caregivers are also frequently denied appropriate leave, while there are reports of abuse and unfair restrictions.
National Human Rights Commission Chairwoman Chen Chu (陳菊) spoke about migrant workers’ rights at a forum on Dec. 7 last year. The government should follow up on the findings of that forum, for example, through a committee tasked with investigating and finding solutions for problems that migrant workers face.
Human rights groups have also called for the death penalty to be abolished. A nine-member international panel of human rights experts on May 13 last year issued a report on Taiwan’s implementation of UN human rights covenants that relate to the use of the death penalty. Austrian human rights lawyer Manfred Nowak said that Taiwan was “already among a very, very small number of countries in the world that still retain the death penalty, and the arguments that are time and again repeated by the government are far from convincing.”
Taiwan also continues to prosecute people accused of defamation in criminal court. The US Department of State said in its 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices last year that “under the law, those [in Taiwan] who commit slander or libel by ‘pointing out or disseminating a fact which will injure the reputation of another’ are subject to a sentence of up to two years or a fine.”
While Taiwan has made great progress on human rights, it should continue to investigate and improve issues that are of concern to Taiwanese at home and abroad.
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