The Cabinet’s Transitional Justice Commission aims to complete the preliminary work for redressing unjust judicial cases in just two weeks, a commission member said yesterday.
The agency would first tackle the archives of governmental agencies, followed by those of political parties, commission Deputy Chairman Chang Tien-chin (張天欽) said, adding that commission Chairman Huang Huang-hsiung (黃煌雄) had on Friday last week already led a group of commission members to visit the National Development Council’s (NDC) National Archives Administration in New Taipei City’s Sinjhuang District (新莊).
According to the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice (促進轉型正義條例) passed in December last year, the commission is empowered to probe the political archives of any political party, their affiliated organizations and entities, and to make them part of the national archives after a specified deliberation procedure.
Photo provided by the National Archives and Records Administration Development Council
However, it would take more time to tackle the political archives belonging to political parties, as the collection process is more intricate, Chang said.
The commission would also re-examine criminal litigation cases that might violate the nation’s democratic and constitutional order or the fair trial principle, he said.
The task of redressing miscarriages of justice can be divided into three aspects: the 228 Incident in 1947, the White Terror era and the restoration of people’s damaged rights, he said, adding that the commission plans to complete its preliminary work on these areas in two weeks.
The commission has discussed related matters with the 228 Memorial Foundation, the National Human Rights Museum, the Ministry of Culture and the courts, and has reviewed legal documents about sedition and espionage charges made during the Martial Law period, Chang said.
The restoration of damaged rights would be conducted by the courts, he added.
As the commission is required by the act to present a complete report to the premier in two years, it would expedite the investigations, he said.
NDC Deputy Minister Tseng Hsu-cheng (曾旭正) said the commission visited on Friday to inspect the condition of the political archives, adding that there were 20km’s worth of documents and thousands of images.
The archives are to be moved to a new building that is under construction in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), Tseng said, adding that the facility is expected to hold documents that would fill 100km of shelf space.
After the draft for a political data act is passed, the archives would become accessible to members of the public, Tseng added.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to