The Council of Grand Justices yesterday announced that the fingerprinting provision in the House-hold Registration Law (
"A fingerprint is an important piece of personal privacy. Compulsory fingerprinting for national identity cards encroaches on this privacy, which is a basic human right protected by the Constitution," Fan Kuang-chun (范光群), secretary-general of the Judicial Yuan, said yesterday.
Article 8 of the Household Registration Law stipulating compulsory fingerprinting for national identity cards violates Article 22 of the Constitution, which provides for human-rights protection, Fan said.
He said that, according to "the principle of proportionality" as stipulated in Article 23 of the Constitution, the Ministry of the Interior's claim that a citizen-fingerprint database would be helpful when searching for illegal immigrants, laborers and criminals, and identifying dead bodies or suspects, is insufficient reason for establishing such a database.
Fan said that the fingerprinting provision would become invalid with immediate effect.
However, "according to Article 23 of the Constitution, the government can enact proper laws to establish a national fingerprint database if it can prove that a fingerprint database is really necessary for the public good," he said.
But such a new law should expressly forbid the fingerprints being used for purposes not stipulated in the law, Fan said.
The constitutional interpretation came in the wake of the government's controversial policy about compulsory fingerprinting for national identity cards.
The article stipulates that people applying for new national identification cards must submit their fingerprints, which critics say encroaches on a range of human rights.
The program, which was scheduled to begin on July 1, was halted on June 13 because of the Council of Grand Justices' "temporary injunction" against the initiative.
The Ministry of the Interior yesterday responded that it would seek to establish a new law to settle the controversy over whether to establish a national fingerprint database.
The council's decision was made in response to a petition filed by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators on May 31, backed by a wide coalition of over 100 human rights, legal, civic reform and social groups.
After the ruling, the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) announced that it will respect the judges' interpretation of the Constitution and the decision the court has made regarding the policy.
The MOI said it will cancel the fingerprint policy with immediate effect.
The Minister of the Interior, Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全), said that the fingerprinting policy did not affect the issuing of new ID cards, which will be issued as planned on Dec. 21, after the mayoral and commissioner elections.
Vice President Annette Lu (
"The constitutional interpretation is a perfect decision. I admire it very much," Lu said at a press conference held at the Presidential Office after the announcement.
She said that the interpretation also taught politicians a lesson -- lawmakers should not enact a law that is in violation of human rights and the Executive Yuan is under no obligation to implement such a law.
Additional reporting by Jean Lin and Shih Hsiu-chuan
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
RSS