The government plans to establish a national human rights institution to meet with the international Paris Principles standards, Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said yesterday.
The institution would promote and protect human rights and aim to prevent major violations, Chen said at the opening ceremony of the meeting for the review of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights report.
On Dec. 10, 2009, Taiwan adopted two international human rights treaties, which were the basis for establishing a human rights reporting system, and in April 2012, presented its first national human rights report.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
Taiwan invited independent human rights bodies from the international community to visit Taipei in 2013 to review the report.
The review of Taiwan’s second national report in Taipei began yesterday and concludes on Friday. It is being broadcast live.
“Human rights are no longer an issue limited to closed-door discussions,” said the Ministry of Justice, which is working with the Presidential Office’s Human Rights Consultative Committee, chaired by Chen, to host the review meeting.
Chen said that three of the nine core international human rights treaties have not yet become law, including the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
The other two are the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, he said.
The government will make every effort to enact the legislation, Chen said.
The Paris Principles are key evaluation criteria for national human rights institutions. They were adopted unanimously in a resolution by the UN Human Rights Commission in 1993 and in the final acts of the Human Rights Conference that same year.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
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WAR SIMULATION: The developers of the board game ‘2045’ consulted experts and analysts, and made maps based on real-life Chinese People’s Liberation Army exercises To stop invading Chinese forces seizing Taiwan, board gamer Ruth Zhong chooses the nuclear option: Dropping an atomic bomb on Taipei to secure the nation’s freedom and her victory. The Taiwanese board game 2045 is a zero-sum contest of military strategy and individual self-interest that puts players on the front lines of a simulated Chinese attack. Their battlefield game tactics would determine the theoretical future of Taiwan, which in the real world faces the constant threat of a Chinese invasion. “The most interesting part of this game is that you have to make continuous decisions based on the evolving situation,
Actor Lee Wei (李威) was released on bail on Monday after being named as a suspect in the death of a woman whose body was found in the meeting place of a Buddhist group in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) last year, prosecutors said. Lee, 44, was released on NT$300,000 (US$9,148) bail, while his wife, surnamed Chien (簡), was released on NT$150,000 bail after both were summoned to give statements regarding the woman’s death. The home of Lee, who has retreated from the entertainment business in the past few years, was also searched by prosecutors and police earlier on Monday. Lee was questioned three
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