President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has been urged by a pressure group to protect civil rights that are enshrined in two UN conventions and to include those rights in two cross-strait agreements Taipei and Beijing plan to sign later this year.
Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強), a member of the Alliance of Supervising Cross-Strait Agreements, said that Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation and its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, are set to sign an investment protection agreement and a separate pact on medical and hygiene cooperation next month. In preparation, Lai urged Ma to attend a forum organized by the alliance on Dec. 1 and explain how his administration plans to protect individual freedom and workers’ rights.
Lai said the group sent an invitation to Ma on Thursday along with a proposal to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, adding the group hoped they would receive positive responses.
Yen Chueh-an (顏厥安), another alliance member, said Ma mentioned on Oct. 9 that he hoped Taipei and Beijing could find common ground in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights — both of which Taipei and Beijing have signed — and that he hoped the realization of the two covenants would begin with the two accords Taipei and Beijing intend to sign next month.
Yen said because cross-strait and foreign affairs are the president’s constitutional duties, Ma was duty bound to seriously consider their invitation and to take advantage of the opportunity to explain clearly how he would put the two UN covenants into practice.
Taiwan Association for Human Rights chairman Lin Chia-fan (林佳範) said because Taiwanese are most concerned about the protection of individual freedom, he would first like to see both sides reiterate their commitment in the agreements to abide by the two UN conventions.
He said he would like to see the agreement cover not only Taiwanese investors, but also Taiwanese and Chinese who have businesses, jobs and families on either side of the Taiwan Strait, as well as visitors, students and travelers.
Lin added that he would like to see the Chinese government strengthen its notification system in the event a Taiwanese is detained and to review measures on preventing Taiwanese from leaving China because such restrictions could be imposed even if the person is embroiled in a business dispute.
Lin said he would like to see the Chinese government comply with the two UN conventions and abolish the policy of putting people in custody for seven days for interrogations.
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