Human rights groups yesterday called on lawmakers to approve a draft bill that would ban torture and other forms of inhumane punishment.
The call came ahead of International Day in Support of Victims of Torture tomorrow.
Covenants Watch convener Huang Song-lih (黃嵩立) said that torture and other forms of cruelty are used by some government officials during interrogations of suspects and convicts.
Photo: CNA
“As Taiwan has ratified UN human rights covenants, our government has an obligation to prohibit torture and cruel treatment that inflicts pain,” he said.
Huang urged lawmakers to approve the draft bill, which would ban all forms of torture by government agencies and public officials, including police officers, prosecutors, judicial investigators and prison wardens.
Judicial Reform Foundation lawyer Lee Ming-ju (李明洳) said she occasionally handles cases and hears reports from other legal practitioners regarding torture and other forms of abuse being used to force confessions.
Police officers have been using judo to restrain female suspects during questioning, resulting in injury, Lee said.
Migrant workers have been handcuffed during questioning despite cooperating with investigators, she said.
Taiwan Association for Human Rights secretary-general Shih Yi-hsiang (施逸翔) said that the UN Convention Against Torture came into effect in 1987, the same year martial law was lifted in Taiwan.
“Before that, the authoritarian Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government often tortured and beat up suspects, as well as physically abused political dissidents and human rights advocates,” Shih said.
“After martial law was lifted, government agencies continued to apply many forms of torture, along with cruel and inhuman punishments,” Shih said.
Under torture, suspects often wrongfully confess to crimes to end the suffering, Shih said, citing the case of Su Chien-ho (蘇建和), who spent 21 years on death row before his murder conviction was overturned in 2012.
Su testified in court that he had been tortured by police and been forced to sign a confession.
Taiwan does not have a mechanism to explicitly prohibit torture, nor any legal instrument to assist torture victims, Su said at the press conference yesterday, adding that the lack of protection adds to their trauma and makes it difficult for them to resume normal lives.
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