Former Presidential Office secretary-general Chen Chu (陳菊) is to be appointed as Control Yuan president today, while doubling as head of the nation’s newly established National Human Rights Commission.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has drawn up a list of seven other people to serve on the commission, in line with the Organic Act of the Control Yuan National Human Rights Commission (監察院國家人權委員會組織法), which was passed by the Legislative Yuan in December last year and promulgated in January.
Under the act, the 10-member commission is to be headed by the Control Yuan president and composed of seven Control Yuan members, with its other two members to be selected from candidates nominated by the commission members and replaced annually.
Photo: Wang Jung-hsiang, Taipei Times
Chen, a Democratic Progressive Party member and a former Kaohsiung mayor, was imprisoned in the wake of the 1979 Kaohsiung Incident, when the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime arrested pro-democracy activists.
Other commission members to double as new Control Yuan members are Chi Hui-jung (紀惠容), a long-time women’s rights activist; former League for Persons with Disabilities secretary-general Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋); Youth Rights and Welfare secretary-general Yeh Ta-hua (葉大華); and Antonio Hong (鴻義章), a member of the Presidential Office’s Indigenous Historical Justice and Transitional Justice Committee, said sources familiar with the topic, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The new Control Yuan members are to assume their duties from Aug. 1.
The other commission members are current Control Yuan members: Wang Yu-ling (王幼玲), a long-time activist for the rights of migrant workers and people with disabilities; former Judical Reform Foundation executive officer Kao Yung-cheng (高涌誠); and environmental and human rights activist Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇), the sources said.
Tsai’s list nominated people with expertise and practical experience in various areas of human rights so that the commission would be able to competently handle a variety of rights issues, they added.
The sources said that Tsai nominated four women and three men to be on the commission, in line with the Organic Act of the Control Yuan (監察院組織法), which states that the “composition shall be diverse and include representatives from different ethnic groups or professional fields” and “no gender shall constitute less than one-third of the members.”
The Control Yuan, a body with wide-ranging government oversight powers, has 29 members, including a president and a vice president, who are nominated by the president and approved by the Legislative Yuan.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
RSS