In the middle of last month, an international human rights investigation group consisting of human rights academics and experts, media editors and reporters from Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, Lithuania, Spain, Romania and the US visited Taiwan and met with government agencies and human rights organizations.
The group’s final visit was to the Control Yuan’s National Human Rights Commission in Taipei, where they met with Control Yuan President Chen Chu (陳菊) and commission members Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) and Lai Chen-chang (賴振昌) to discuss issues related to transitional justice, post-authoritarian human rights persecution cases and the commission’s duties.
The group previously visited the National Human Rights Museum in New Taipei City — the former site of a prison in which more than 8,000 political prisoners were held and tried in military courts during the Martial Law period, including Chen.
Photo: Taipei Times
Citizen Congress Watch board member Tseng Chien-yuan (曾建元), who accompanied the group, said: “These academics have seen the prison cell in which Chen Chu was being held at the time. She was an inmate at the time, and she is now the president of the Control Yuan. In addition to admiring her courage at the time, we also believe that her experiences and abilities can prevent Taiwan from repeating her experiences, and bring progress in all aspects of Taiwan’s human rights.”
Led by Italian sociologist Massimo Introvigne, who is editor-in-chief of religious magazine Bitter Winter and a world-renowned academic, and Willy Fautre, president of the Belgium-based non-governmental group Human Rights Without Frontiers, the delegation said Taiwan’s most valuable assets are freedom, democracy and human rights.
The delegation also focused on human rights abuse cases that have not yet been fully redressed in Taiwan’s post-authoritarian era, including a case involving the previously persecuted Tai Ji Men Qigong group, which urgently requires the implementation of transitional justice and obtaining redress.
Photo: Taipei Times
The group was accompanied to the National Human Rights Commission by Ambassador-at-Large for Religious Freedom Pusin Tali, who was appointed after the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) created the position.
Pusin Tali is a pastor in the Presbyterian Church and has experienced first-hand the political oppression that the church has undergone.
Upon hearing about the international attention surrounding the Tai Ji Men case, including from the delegation, he made an appeal.
“The international community is supporting Tai Ji Men. While waiting for legislative reforms, the most important thing is to allow them to use their land and academies properly,” he said. “This will help them cultivate their minds and spirits. Religion is about bringing out the good side of people. Our country should make good use of Tai Ji Men and use it as a form of international diplomacy.”
The delegation’s visit was organized by the Taiwan-based Chinese Democracy Academy Association and Citizen Congress Watch.
The organizers said they made special arrangements to help the international experts experience the democratic values of Taiwan more deeply.
“The National Human Rights Commission has been operating for two to three years, but it still lacks the power of judicial review,” Tseng said. “The power of judicial review is to provide it with a weapon, for example, temporary injunctive relief for cases where human rights are being infringed upon. It should be able to suspend the execution of illegal or inappropriate administrative penalties.”
Chen expressed her willingness to make the greatest effort possible to achieve this.
Introvigne said that through the group members’ meetings and exchanges in Taiwan over the past few days, they hoped to observe and experience the diversity and prosperity of religions in Taiwan.
While praising Taiwan’s efforts and attitude toward religious freedom, they nevertheless also had to bring up the unresolved issue of Tai Ji Men as a matter of religious freedom, Introvigne said.
“Many international scholars, including those in the United States, are concerned about this issue,” he said.
Introvigne said he believes that as a highly democratic country, Taiwan’s only way to solve such problems is through dialogue.
He emphasized that they are good friends and defenders of Taiwan and are willing to help wherever they can.
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.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
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
RSS