Taiwan has been named the only country in Asia with an open civic space for the fourth straight year by human rights organization Civicus in a report released in Bangkok yesterday.
Civicus released the People Power Under Attack 2022 report under its Civicus Monitor program, an ongoing research collaboration between the group and more than 20 research partner organizations.
The research assessed the extent to which each country protects fundamental rights of freedoms of association, peaceful assembly and expression, as well as policies, laws and practices related to these freedoms.
Photo: grab from twitter.com/CIVICUSMonitor
It rates the civic space of the 197 countries and territories it surveyed as open, narrowed, obstructed, repressed or closed, the report said.
Data collected from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31 last year showed “a serious decline in civic space,” with only 3.2 percent of the global population living in open civic space, while 28.5 percent of the population, approximately 2 billion people, are living in closed civic space, the report said.
In Asia, Taiwan remained the only country rated as open, while civic space in Japan, Mongolia and South Korea was described as narrowed, it said.
Seven Asian countries and territories were rated as closed, up from four in the 2021 report, with Afghanistan, Hong Kong and Myanmar joining China, Laos, North Korea and Vietnam, the report said.
Taiwan has created an environment that allows people to enjoy civil liberties, Josef Benedict, a Civicus researcher on civic space in the Asia-Pacific region, told the Central News Agency.
The rating indicates that people in Taiwan are able to freely protest and assemble, and journalists can work free from restrictions thanks to relatively high press freedom, he said.
Taiwanese authorities allow criticism from civil groups, and create spaces and platforms for people to have dialogues, he added.
While the civic space in the Asia-Pacific region continued to shrink as incidents of repression of protesters and harassment of dissidents increased in several countries last year, Taiwan maintaining an open civic space is “a positive signal” for the region, he said.
Taiwan provides a safe haven for human rights workers, and supports dissents and journalists in the region, he said.
To further enhance the human rights environment, Taiwan can improve working and living conditions for migrant workers, enact laws against abuse and adopt broader regulations to prevent discrimination, he said.
Additional reporting by CNA
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked