The National Defense University was fined NT$1 million (US$31,878) for discriminating against a student with HIV and forcing him to drop out of school, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday.
After the university learned that the student, named A-li (a pseudonym), had tested positive for HIV during an annual health examination in early 2012, it asked him to keep his meal tray, eating utensils and clothes separate from those of other students and barred him from taking swimming classes, while teachers often suggested that he drop out of school.
The hospital that conducted the exam had given the university the test results without A-li’s consent.
He was expelled the following year, shortly before he was due to graduate, for bad conduct, including having a bad attitude and disrespecting teachers.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare and the CDC filing an administrative suit against the university over A-li’s case, but the Taipei High Administrative Court in March ruled in favor of the school in part because the university falls under the remit of the Ministry of National Defense, not the health ministry.
The health ministry and the CDC appealed the case to the Supreme Administrative Court in April.
As the lawsuit has continued for two years, the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) sent a letter to the CDC last month, expressing concern about the case and citing verdicts of cases in four nations about the right to education for people with HIV/AIDS.
The CDC said it had decided to fine the university for contravening the HIV Infection Control and Patient Rights Protection Act (人類免疫缺乏病毒傳染防治及感染者權益保障條例).
CDC Deputy Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩) said the fine is the first the agency has issued on the grounds of education discrimination, as well as the biggest fine it has ever imposed.
If the school is willing to reach an out-of-court settlement in the administrative suit with the health ministry over the case, the CDC would not issue the fine, Chou said.
However, if it continues to refuse to reinstate the student or reach an out-of-court settlement, it could be fined repeatedly, he said.
“We want to stress that we will not give up any chance of communicating, of achieving a win-win situation, or even a triple-win situation — meaning that the university, the student and the government agencies can all will in pursuing human rights for people with HIV/AIDS,” Chou said.
“If we cannot allow infected people to feel that they can expect a good future in society, then how can we expect them to accept HIV/AIDS screening and cooperate in HIV/AIDS prevention,” he said.
The university yesterday said that it “has never discriminated against people with HIV/AIDS and no student has been expelled from the school for having HIV/AIDS.”
A-li was punished because he had violated the school’s information security rules and did not achieve the minimum standard for morality grades, and he was expelled according to assessment guidelines and a resolution of its disciplinary committee, the school said.
Additional reporting by staff writer and CNA
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS