Expanding democracy is only the effective strategy to eventually eliminate modern-day slavery and achieve human rights and social justice, the winner of the sixth Asian Democracy and Human Rights Award (ADHRA) said yesterday.
“It is not coincidence that a vast number of countries with good human rights records have a democratic system of governance” because it requires not only a top-down approach to implement national policy, but also the involvement of grassroots civil society to crack down on human trafficking, said Boat People SOS (BPSOS) executive director Nguyen Oinh Thang, whose group won this year’s ADHRA, in his acceptance speech before the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD) at the award ceremony in Taipei.
Founded in 1980, the national Vietnamese American community organization, has dedicated itself to assisting asylum seekers to resettle their lives in various countries through cooperation with state governments and non-governmental organizations worldwide.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
It also aims to build a solid civil society in Asia through direct intervention in individual refugee and human-trafficking cases and advocacy of law and fact-based policies in democratic countries that address how non-democratic governments suppress their people.
Having worked with countries including Russia, Japan, Canada, Philippines and many others, Thang said that he had never seen a country like Taiwan, which has such a strong determination and political will to combat human-trafficking and which has made so much progress in such a short time.
However, he said there was a long-standing problem in Taiwan concerning the lack of institutional protection for migrant workers employed as domestic helpers, saying Taiwan’s Human -Trafficking -Prevention Act (人口販運防制法) “has yet to protect the nursing and home care industry.”
Despite that, Thang said the efforts made by Taiwan in anti-human trafficking was highly recognized, saying that Taiwan has been placed in the “Tier 1” category of the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report for the second year in a row.
The secret behind Taiwan’s successful story, Thang said, was cooperation and partnership between the government and anonymous individuals, as well as non--governmental organizations, in rescuing victims and enforcing the Human Trafficking Prevention Act.
In the early years of its establishment, BPSOS persuaded governments to launch coordinated efforts to fight pirates in the Gulf of Thailand and rescued more than 3,300 Vietnamese boat people at sea and brought them to safety.
In the early 1990s, as more governments established diplomatic ties with Vietnam’s communist government, despite its refusal to respect human rights and freedom, and redefined Vietnamese boat people as economic migrants rather than freedom seekers, BPSOS confronted this threat and advocated the internationally recognized principle of “non-refoulement,” which calls for the protection of refugees from return to countries where their lives or freedoms might be threatened.
Since 1999, BPSOS has fought the global explosion of human trafficking, especially in labor exports. With its headquarters located in the US, BPSOS now has 18 offices across the US, and four more in Taiwan and Southeast Asia.
Thang received a trophy from President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and a US$100,000 cash prize from Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), who also serves as TFD chairman.
Ma praised Thang for his dedication and contributions to combating human-trafficking and reaffirmed his administration’s determination to continue to pursue human rights.
“Implementing human rights enshrined in the two UN human rights covenants has been one of the basic national policies of the country. When we have become a country that confers an award to others, we have to work harder,” Ma said.
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
RSS