A coalition of civic groups yesterday criticized the government’s judicial reform as ineffective, saying that many changes proposed by the National Congress on Judicial Reform a year ago have barely been implemented.
Since the congress was convened on the orders of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in August last year, the government has begun working on a number of draft bills and amendments based on its suggestions, yet measures that do not require any new laws remain far from being implemented, Judicial Reform Foundation (JRF) chairman Lin Yung-sung (林永頌) told a news conference in Taipei.
The inefficiency of the reform is due to opposition from within the judicial system, Lin said.
“Apparently, most people within the system are against reform and the heads of agencies have decided to side with the bureaucrats, rather than the people,” he said.
The JRF and a dozen other civic groups, including the Garden of Hope Foundation (GHF), Taiwan Association for Human Rights and the Red Cross, said that the government for has disregarded many of the National Congress’ resolutions.
For example, the National Police Agency has not established committees on police education and performance evaluation, as suggested by the congress, they said, adding that it has only been willing to hold consultations nature on the issue.
The committees had been recommended as part of a solution to the existing performance evaluation system, which is not only ineffective, but leads to police officers being overworked, they said.
Meanwhile, law enforcement has continued to violate the principle of keeping investigations confidential, ignoring the congress’ advice, they said.
Last month, pictures, police footage and personal information of a 10-year-old suspect in an alleged fraud case were published by a number of media after being leaked by police, they said.
When the JRF reported the leak to the National Police Agency, it said that the police station did not find any evidence of misconduct by its officers, the groups added.
The government has adopted a number of policies suggested by the congress, but it needs to ensure that they are implemented, they said.
For example, the Judicial Yuan in October last year established a committee to protect children’s rights and gender equality based on a congress resolution, but whether it will help depends on how the committee will be run, they said.
Many judges and prosecutors still lack gender awareness and do not understand the complexity of sexual assault, GHF chief executive Chi Hui-jung (紀惠容) said.
“A prosecutor asked a female migrant worker who had been sexually assaulted why she did not bite the man’s genitals and why she did not immediately call for help,” Chi said. “He was unable to comprehend the vulnerable situation that she was in — the language barrier, her doubts about the reliability of our judicial system and that she lived in her employer’s house.”
More education on such issues is urgently needed for judges and prosecutors, she added.
“If the government was a manufacturer, what it is doing at the moment would be equivalent to disregarding quality control and turning a blind eye to customer complaints,” Lin said.
To regain the public’s trust, the government must follow through on judicial reform, he said.
READY: The CGA said it closely monitored China’s maritime exercise, deployed vessels to shadow the Chinese ships one-on-one and set up emergency response centers Chinese navy and coast guard ships have returned to China, signaling the end of a massive maritime exercise, authorities said yesterday. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) released images it said showed Chinese vessels sailing north in rough seas past Taiwan on Thursday, on their way to China. “All the Chinese coast guard went back to China yesterday, so although they have not officially made any announcement, we consider it over,” CGA Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said. Beijing has not confirmed the drills and the Chinese Ministry of National Defense did not say whether the maneuvers had taken place when asked at a
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
PUBLIC TRANSPORT: As some roads would be fully or partially closed, people are advised to take the MRT, with services expanded to accommodate more riders This year’s Taipei Marathon, which has obtained its first gold label certification from World Athletics, is to be held from 5am to 1pm tomorrow and would have 28,000 participants. The race is to start from the Taipei City Plaza and would go through major roads throughout the city, with traffic control implemented from 6am to 2pm, officials said. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system and New Taipei City MRT Circle line would start operating at 5am on the day of the race, they said. The race would cover Renai Road, Xinyi Road, Hangzhou S Road, Aiguo east and west roads,
Upon its completion next year, the new Tamkang Bridge (淡江大橋) in New Taipei City is to be an important landmark in Taiwan, alongside Taipei 101, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shi-kai (陳世凱) said today. The bridge is scheduled to be completed in December next year and open to the public in the first half of 2026, connecting New Taipei City’s Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里) districts. It is an asymmetric single-tower suspension bridge, nearly 70 stories tall, designed by world-famous architect Zaha Hadid. The bridge aims to alleviate traffic in Tamsui and on the Guandu Bridge (關渡大橋), in addition to increasing the
RSS