Mon, Dec 27, 1999 page1

• A year of rights violations: activists

  HUMAN RIGHTS REVIEW The Taiwan Association of Human Rights says it's been a particularly bad year in Taiwan for those who cherish their personal freedoms

  • By Stephanie Low / STAFF REPORTER
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  In releasing the top 10 news stories relating to Taiwan's human rights conditions over the past year, the Taiwan Association for Human Rights (TAHR, 台灣人 促進會) yesterday dubbed 1999 a year of "human rights infringement."

  Seven of the 10 news stories on the list are cases of infringement, the group claims, led by the Sept. 21 earthquake that left more than 2,000 people dead, more than 8,000 injured and thousands of others homeless.

  "This [the earthquake] is the best example of the government's inadequacy in the protection of human rights," said TAHR vice chairman Hsueh Ching-feng (薛欽峰).

  Hsueh said natural catastrophe was not the only cause of casualties and damage in the quake, as human factors -- especially the collusion of unscrupulous construction companies with corrupt government officials -- were obviously involved. This sort of corruption, he said, posed a threat to survival, work and property rights.

  Hsueh took particular issue with what he called a lack of responsibility in enforcing construction standards. While little progress has been seen in the government's attempts to track down and prosecute unscrupulous construction companies and architects responsible for collapsed buildings, he said the government has not examined its own responsibilities in construction management and inspection.

  In what Hsueh said is a clear example of the deprivation of the right to survive, eight death row inmates convicted under the controversial Act for Control and Punishment of Banditry were executed on Oct. 7. Taiwan's legal fraternity has challenged the law's validity and pressed the government to abolish it -- which it said last week it would.

  In another case that involved people's right to privacy, the Communication Protection and Surveil-lance Law, passed in July, stipulates that prosecutors and judges can conduct surveillance on mail, speech and other messages trans-mitted through telecommunications devices, for the sake of "national security" and "social order."

  Hsueh warned that the act may become a means for the government to further abuse wiretapping powers, which had already become a serious problem. Statistics cited by the TAHR showed that as many as 15,500 people were wiretapped "legally" during the first half of 1999.

  Other incidents of human rights violations on the TAHR list included discriminatory treatment faced by homosexuals, as reflected in the government's decision to reject an application to set up a public organization for homosexuals and constant police spot checks on gay bars.

  In what the TAHR said showed a poor enforcement of the law, victims of domestic violence have been unable to gain due protection even after the implementation of the Domestic Violence Prevention Act, because law enforcement officials are not being adequately trained.

  But not all was negative. The TAHR cited three events as positive developments in the protection of human rights.

  The first was the establishment of a private alliance on Dec. 10 to push the government to set up a national human rights committee within a year. The second is revisions to court-martial laws to uphold the principle of judicial independence in military courts.

  The third, which the TAHR said was indicative of freedom of speech and assembly, was when the Council of Grand Justices ruled in April that it was unconstitutional for the Ministry of Interior to restrict the naming of civil organizations.

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