Human Rights Day on Dec. 10 has special meaning for Taiwan. The Kaohsiung Incident that took place on this day 25 years ago was an important watershed for the tangwai [outside the party] movement. The defense lawyers in that case are today's political leaders.
Due to the close relationship between Taiwan's political and democratic development and Human Rights Day, the latter has always been given a high political profile, as if political rights equal human rights. Articles 3 to 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which are related to a person's basic rights to life and political participation, are for the most part protected in Taiwan -- at least in name. Of course, some people may argue that Article 15, which states that "everyone has the right to a nationality," is ambiguous for the people of Taiwan.
But more importantly, as technology continues to advance, such progress may easily violate our rights -- such as those stipulated in Article 12: "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence," or Article 19, which protects a person's freedom "to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."
If those in power do not firmly uphold human rights, it is far too easy for them to interfere with the public's rights using technology. But they may also do so due to technological ignorance. Conflicts over proposed identification cards with electronic chips and a proposed database of the public's fingerprints underline this problem.
Perhaps Taiwan is weakest in the latter section of the declaration -- the protection of a person's economic, social, and cultural rights -- mainly stipulated in Articles 22 to 29. Although they are also basic universal human rights, they are more likely to be affected by changes in social and economic conditions than political rights. For example, Article 23 states that "everyone who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration." But this is actually decided by different social conditions. People's rights to leisure, education, medical care and cultural life also vary in different societies.
In the lead-up to this memorable day, we saw merely activities on "cultural citizenship" held by the Council for Cultural Affairs (CCA). Other government agencies only care about political rights -- such as the right to participate in legislative elections -- and seldom hold activities to boost people's social, economic and cultural rights. We are witnessing new challenges to people's rights in Taiwan.
Other bad news was cause for uneasiness, such as poor students being unable to afford lunch, increased numbers of low-income households, poverty brought on by globalization and the violation of foreign spouses' working and cultural rights, and even the right to ethnic equality. We need new policies in the face of these human rights problems brought on by social changes.
Recently, Minister of the Interior Su Jia-chyuan (
What is more regretful is that President Chen Shui-bian (
Ku Er-teh is a freelance writer.
TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017
RSS