A group of UK human rights experts yesterday said that it requires strong political leadership to steer a nation toward completely doing away with capital punishment.
Leading a delegation of three people on a three-day visit to Taiwan, British Member of Parliament Keir Starmer told a news conference in Taipei that strong public disapproval is an issue that confronts every nation that moves away from the use of the death penalty.
“It certainly confronted the UK when we abolished the death penalty,” Starmer said. “At that time public opinion was in favor of death penalty.”
“Almost every country made the argument that there is something special about their cultural traditions which require it to keep the death penalty,” said Starmer, cofounder of a London-based law firm that specializes in civil liberties and human rights.
With President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration pledging to be a government guided by public opinion, Starmer said that there were three things that helped prompt changes in the UK five decades ago to restrict the use of capital punishment.
“The first was strong political leadership, which said: ‘This sentence is wrong in principle and we will have nothing more to do with it,’” he said.
As most people only talk about the death penalty in the abstract, he said the second motivator was to offer the public a glimpse into how capital punishment was actually carried out.
When people saw how it worked in practice, they were very uncomfortable with the death penalty, he added.
Starmer said the third element was that capital punishment has become an indicator of whether a country is progressive, forward-looking and wanting to join the family of countries that have gotten rid of the death penalty.
“Or, whether it wants to be seen by others as being stuck in the past with countries that are unwilling to change,” Starmer said, adding that courageous political leadership combined with a better understanding of the death penalty could cause public opinions to change.
Starmer declined to reveal details of his meeting with Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) and Minister of Justice Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) on Wednesday, saying only that the discussions were “constructive.”
As one of three democracies worldwide that still carry out death sentences, Taiwan has executed 33 death-row inmates since 2010, with the last one being Taipei MRT killer Cheng Chieh (鄭捷) in May last year. There are 41 people on death row.
Death Penalty Project co-executive director Saul Lehrfreund, who is a member of the delegation, said research he has done with academics, universities and criminologists show that public perceptions of capital punishment are not black-and-white.
“For example, if you ask the public an abstract question: ‘Do you support the death penalty?’ It is very probable that the vast majority of people would support the death penalty,” Lehrfreund said.
“However, if you ask people how strongly they support the death penalty, you will find the majority of people do not come back and say they support the death penalty strongly,” Lehrfreund said. “They may support it, but not so much that they would not accept changes.”
People can take the Taipei MRT free of charge if they access it at Nanjing Sanmin Station or Taipei Arena Station on the Green Line between 12am and 6am on Jan. 1, the Taipei Department of Transportation said on Friday, outlining its plans to ease crowding during New Year’s events in the capital. More than 200,000 people are expected to attend New Year’s Eve events in Taipei, with singer A-mei (張惠妹) performing at the Taipei Dome and the city government’s New Year’s Eve party at Taipei City Hall Plaza, the department said. As people have tended to use the MRT’s Blue or
Civil society groups yesterday protested outside the Legislative Yuan, decrying Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) efforts to pass three major bills that they said would seriously harm Taiwan’s democracy, and called to oust KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁). It was the second night of the three-day “Bluebird wintertime action” protests in Taipei, with organizers announcing that 8,000 people attended. Organized by Taiwan Citizen Front, the Economic Democracy Union (EDU) and a coalition of civil groups, about 6,000 people began a demonstration in front of KMT party headquarters in Taipei on Wednesday, organizers said. For the third day, the organizers asked people to assemble
Taipei is participating in Osaka’s Festival of Lights this year, with a 3m-tall bubble tea light installation symbolizing Taiwan’s bubble tea culture. The installation is designed as a bubble tea cup and features illustrations of Taipei’s iconic landmarks, such as Taipei 101, the Red House and North Gate, as well as soup dumplings and the matchmaking deity the Old Man Under the Moon (月下老人), affectionately known as Yue Lao (月老). Taipei and Osaka have collaborated closely on tourism and culture since Taipei first participated in the festival in 2018, the Taipei City Department of Information and Tourism said. In February, Osaka represented
Taiwanese professional baseball should update sports stadiums and boost engagement to enhance fans’ experience, Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) commissioner Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview on Friday. The league has urged Farglory Group and the Taipei City Government to improve the Taipei Dome’s outdated equipment, including relatively rudimentary television and sound systems, and poor technology, he said. The Tokyo Dome has markedly better television and sound systems, despite being 30 years old, because its managers continually upgraded its equipment, Tsai said. In contrast, the Taipei Dome lacked even a room for referees
RSS