A proposed "ethnic fairness law" (族群平等法) passed its preliminary round at the Legislative Yuan's Home and Nations Committee on Monday.
Under the proposed law, victims who have faced discrimination through mediums such as writings, advertisements, news or political commentaries may seek compensation from the those who caused the discrimination.
Compensation may include the ones already stated in the law or the victim may also seek additional compensation from the discriminator.
PROPOSED PUNISHMENT
According to the draft, an individual who commits ethnic discrimination could be fined between NT$100,000 and NT$5 million while an individual who manipulates words, news reports, or ads during elections to stir up ethnic disharmony could face a maximum sentence of two years, or a NT$1,000 fine.
Due to intense debate over what the proper punishments should be, lawmakers plan further discussions on the three versions of the bill -- one presented by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the People First Party (PFP), one from the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) and one by TSU Legislator Huang Tsung-yuan (
According to the draft, the government body in charge of handling the administration would be the Ministry of the Interior (MOI).
In order to carry out investigations into cases of discriminations, the ministry and city and county are to form an ethnic fairness committee of 12 who would be academics, experts in the field and social figures with a reputation for being impartial.
OTHER OPTIONS
The MOI is taking a conservative stance towards the bill as the Ministry of Justice is drafting a "human-rights act" (
Vice Minister of the Interior Lin Yung-chien (
Lin said he hoped lawmakers would ponder whether such a law was really needed.
Article 7 of the Constitution stipulates that all citizens, irrespective of sex, religion, ethnic origin, class or party affiliation, are equal before the law.
The technicality of the term "race" (
RESERVING COMMENT
When approached yesterday by the Taipei Times for comment about the possibility of the bill being passed, several prominent human-rights advocates said that they had yet to take a good look at the drafts of the bill and therefore were unable to make any comment.
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