EU policies on advancing human rights and democracy would hopefully provide inspiration for reform of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan Director Filip Grzegorzewski said yesterday.
Grzegorzewski made the remarks at the seventh installment of the KMT’s International Democracy Salon Series in Taipei, as he was invited as the sole guest speaker at the event, titled “The Core Values of the European Union: Democracy and Human Rights.”
In his speech, Grzegorzewski introduced the priorities set out by the “EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy 2020-2024,” which was formally adopted in November last year and follows two previous action plans introduced in 2012 and 2015.
Photo courtesy of the Chinese Nationalist Party
The document proposes five lines of action, summarized under the goals of protecting and empowering individuals; building resilient, inclusive and democratic societies; promoting a global system for human rights and democracy; harnessing the opportunities and addressing the challenges presented by new technologies; and delivering progress by working together.
“Human rights and democracy are under increasing pressure,” said Grzegorzewski, who has been the head of the office since September 2019.
“Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, we are noticing a persistent deterioration in democracy and human rights,” he said. “The need for effective, coherent and collective action on human rights and democracy is more important than ever.”
Grzegorzewski said he hoped that EU policies could serve as inspiration for the KMT and the nation.
As one of the oldest political parties in the world with “the longest history of being active as a participant of political life in Taiwan,” the KMT is “now in a crucial phase of its development,” he said.
The party “is probably now trying to reinvent itself to prove to the voters that it’s still relevant,” he said, adding that he believes that the KMT needs “new ideas.”
The EU’s views on human rights could be a “very practical” inspiration for the development of the KMT, he said.
One of the values most important to the EU is opposition to the death penalty, he said.
Grzegorzewski described the death penalty as “cruel and inhuman,” and a “violation of the rights to life and does not act as a deterrent to crime.”
The death penalty “disproportionally affects minorities, the poor and the most vulnerable,” he said.
“The abolitionist position has prevailed worldwide ... and there have been no executions over the past decade in 162 countries,” he said.
More progress toward the abolition of the death penalty was needed in Taiwan, he said, adding that the EU was willing to offer assistance.
Although Taiwan is presented to the world as a beacon of democracy, and the concepts of human rights, rule of law and democracy are a part of the nation’s DNA, it continues to carry out executions, Grzegorzewski said. “I really don’t get it.”
He said that while he understood public sentiment concerning the punishment of those who have committed serious crimes, he believed it was the responsibility of politicians and members of “the elite ... to talk to those who are not convinced.”
The attitude he has observed from both sides of the political spectrum in Taiwan was that “we’ve put it [the abolition of the death penalty] in the program, but we actually don’t mean it,” he said.
“I’m not buying it. This is your responsibility to talk to your society, to talk to your people, and convince them that the whole world has moved on,” he said. “You cannot stay in your mindset in the Middle Ages.”
The talk was co-organized by the KMT’s Department of International Affairs and the party-affiliated National Policy Foundation.
Party members, including KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Culture and Communications Committee director-general Alicia Wang (王育敏) and Legislator Charles Chen (陳以信) attended the event.
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