Taipei should be aiming to have comprehensive engagement with the international community on human rights issues to enhance progress in Taiwan’s efforts in rights matters, National Human Rights Commission Chairwoman Chen Chu (陳菊) said yesterday at the opening of a rights forum.
This year’s edition of the commission’s Human Rights Thematic Forum began yesterday at the Chang Yung-fa Foundation’s International Convention Center in Taipei and was attended by local and international experts, discussing a wide range of topics including the rights of an aging population, national human rights institutions and how government agencies can collaborate with civic groups.
Chen said that the region’s Asia-Pacific Forum greatly assisted the commission’s establishment and significantly helped with two online sessions after it was created.
Photo: Yang Cheng-yu, Taipei Times
Since its establishment in 2020, the commission has undergone five review processes regarding Taiwan’s compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Chen said.
The commission has held 78 events similar to yesterday’s forum, and has interacted with more than 452 local groups on a variety of rights issues, she added.
“We must hear the voices and opinions from all sectors, and such opinions must be accorded their due respect,” Chen said.
The commission’s primary job is to bridge civic groups and the government, and ensure that Taipei can present practical policies that respond to the appeals of civic groups, she added.
Citing the UN’s 1991 Principle for Older Persons, Chen said the commission is aware that the rights of an aging population are a responsibility the government must shoulder as the percentage of the population that is older than age 65 increases rapidly.
The commission “does not represent the government,” and it aspires to become the nation’s conscience and an entity disadvantaged Taiwanese can count on, she said.
Regarding Taiwan Association for Human Rights Director-General Shih Yi-hsiang’s (施逸翔) concerns that the government was “indirectly discriminating” against people with COVID-19 by prohibiting them from voting in today’s elections, Chen said she would discuss the matter with government officials.
Shih said that while public health is an important issue, the Executive Yuan should explain its decision when voting accommodations could have been made.
The government must consider how to handle unexpected situations where human rights are suppressed, he added.
Additional reporting by Yang Cheng-yu
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching