Increased participation in international organizations and signing trade pacts with major countries besides China are major factors that will contribute to human rights, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said yesterday.
Speaking at a press conference held to publicize Shih Hsin University’s yearly survey “Taiwan: Civil Liberty and Political Rights,” Wang, who also serves as the chairman of the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, said increased involvement in UN specialized agencies would ensure the public of better access to information and help Taiwan connect with the rest of the world.
After its accession to the World Health Assembly as an observer this May, Taiwan is vying to have more “meaningful participation” to two UN specialized agencies — the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the International Civil Aviation Organization.
Wang said the nation’s continual survival and its human rights hinge upon the support of the global community. Moreover, as the government looks to sign an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with Beijing, it should also expedite signing similar trade pacts with other key players, such as the US, Japan, the EU and ASEAN nations.
By forging stronger economic ties in these regions, Wang said, it will lessen public concern over Taiwan’s dependency on the Chinese market and boost the country’s competitive edge.
Wang urged bipartisan support for the two UN human rights covenants that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) recently signed — the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights — and also urged the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to stop paralyzing the legislature over the opening up to US bone-in beef imports.
Ma is scheduled to officially announce that the nation has signed the two UN covenants on Thursday.
The survey was conducted on a sample of 1,068 respondents and it covered six areas — personal liberty, individual freedom and equality, religious freedom, freedom to assemble, freedom to vote and access to public services.
The survey showed that, while the respondents gave the human rights situation a score of 3.26 out of five, the so-called “social elite” gave a slightly higher score of 3.37. The term “social elites” refers to academics and “experts,” the university said.
The survey also showed that vote-buying is still considered a prevalent problem and the respondents also questioned the government’s emergency response abilities.
While the “social elite” gave a 3.61 mark for the freedom to assemble and join civic groups, the public only marked it 3.25, possibly a result of disagreements over the contents of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), academics said.
Freedom of mobility received the highest score of 4.07 and 4.27 from the public and the “social elite” respectively, the poll showed.
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
CASES SLOWING: Although weekly COVID-19 cases are rising, the growth rate has been falling, from 90 percent to 30 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, the CDC said COVID-19 hospitalizations last week rose 6 percent to 987, while deaths soared 55 percent to 99, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the recent wave of infections would likely peak this week. People aged 65 or older accounted for 79 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths, the majority of whom have or had underlying health conditions, CDC data showed. The youngest hospitalized case last week was a six-month-old, who was born preterm and was unvaccinated, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. The infant had a fever, coughing and a runny nose early this month, but