The Council of Grand Justices yesterday ruled that some hunting restrictions on Aborigines were unconstitutional, but stopped short of supporting a total overhaul of regulations, which some hunting advocates had called for.
Hunting restrictions have become a contentious issue among Aboriginal communities.
Under current regulations, Aboriginal communities are only allowed to hunt with self-made shotguns during certain festivals and only with prior approval from authorities.
Photo: Tung Chen-kuo, Taipei Times
Advocates say the self-made firearms are dangerous and that restrictions impede on the subsistence hunting traditions their communities have practiced for centuries.
In Constitutional Interpretation No. 803, the grand justices found portions of the Controlling Guns, Ammunition and Knives Act (槍砲彈藥刀械管制條例) and the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保育法) unconstitutional.
Although the Controlling Guns, Ammunition and Knives Act specifies the kind of guns and munitions Aborigines can make, it contravenes the Constitution’s protection of Aborigine’s and their way of life, as the regulations do not consider the safety of those making the guns, the grand justices found.
Photo: CNA
The National Police Agency must amend the act to make it compliant with the Constitution within two years, the council said.
Under the act, Aborigines cannot manufacture, transport or own self-made shotguns or harpoons for making a living without a permit.
The interpretation said that the Constitution protects the traditional cultures of Aboriginal communities, but this protection is predicated on the basis that these are not used for commercial purposes.
However, the Wildlife Conservation Act does not protect Aborigines’ right to hunt protected species, the interpretation said.
A requirement that Aborigines apply to hunt five days in advance, with a ban on unplanned hunting, was unreasonably rigid and unconstitutional, in contravention of the principle of proportionality, it said.
Under the rules, Aborigines must specify the animals they would hunt and how many they would kill in an application, which the interpretation also found unconstitutional.
The ruling followed the 2015 conviction of Tama Talum, a Bunun hunter charged with killing two animals from protected species with a modified shotgun in 2013.
Talum was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison, a verdict that caused outrage within Aboriginal communities and sparked a long-running legal battle over the acts.
Talum said he was following tribal customs and was hunting the animals to feed his mother.
The case was in 2017 appealed to the Supreme Court, which upheld the conviction and sentence, but also asked the Council of Grand Justices to review hunting regulations.
Talum called the council’s constitutional interpretation “regrettable” and said he would continue to hunt.
The ruling yesterday does not affect Talum’s case, which is to resume at the Supreme Court.
Hsieh Meng-yu (謝孟羽), a lawyer with the Legal Aid Foundation, said the ruling went “90 percent” against Talum.
However, it was the first time a court has recognized that Aboriginal hunting was “a cultural right that should be respected and protected by the state,” Hsieh said.
The foundation would push for a suspended sentence for Talum, Hsieh added.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary