The Taiwanese Association for Human Rights (TAHR) yesterday listed the denial of rights to lepers at the Losheng (Happy Family) Sanatorium and the leaking of private information on quarantined tuberculosis patients among the year's top human rights abuses, urging voters to evaluate legislative candidates based on their awareness of human rights.
With International Human Rights Day on Monday, the association yesterday held a press conference in Taipei to unveil the country's "top 10 human right news events" this year.
The association has designed a 25-question human rights survey, which they invited legislative candidates to take and "ponder their positions on a number of issues such as gay rights, the human rights of AIDS carriers and the death penalty," TAHR secretary-general Lin Shu-ya (
"A good legislator should possess a sound appreciation of human rights," Taiwan International Workers' Association secretary-general Wu Jing-ru (
"In the upcoming elections, we urge voters to choose their legislators wisely for the betterment of society," Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association founder Robin Winkler (
"It saddens me that we have to bring most of the issues we are raising today to public attention, since most of them should be regarded as basic human rights," Wu said.
One such basic human right, Judicial Reform Foundation executive director Lin Feng-jeng (
"In an age when most developed countries have dropped the death penalty, Taiwan is still stubbornly holding on to this outdated law," Lin said, citing the 16-year-long judicial process of Su Chien-ho (
"In addition, the fact that judges, who may lack `real life experience' and are made judges merely because they've passed an examination, are granted the power to determine whether another human lives or dies, is an issue worthy of re-examination," he said.
"It is equally despicable that we still see incidents of discrimination against and maltreatment of [runaway] migrant workers," Wu said.
"We have listed the top 10 events to remind people what they need to keep in mind when choosing their public servants," Lin said. "On the issue of human rights, Taiwan cannot afford to go backwards."
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS