Former Presidential Office secretary-general Chen Chu (陳菊) is to be appointed as Control Yuan president today, while doubling as head of the nation’s newly established National Human Rights Commission.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has drawn up a list of seven other people to serve on the commission, in line with the Organic Act of the Control Yuan National Human Rights Commission (監察院國家人權委員會組織法), which was passed by the Legislative Yuan in December last year and promulgated in January.
Under the act, the 10-member commission is to be headed by the Control Yuan president and composed of seven Control Yuan members, with its other two members to be selected from candidates nominated by the commission members and replaced annually.
Photo: Wang Jung-hsiang, Taipei Times
Chen, a Democratic Progressive Party member and a former Kaohsiung mayor, was imprisoned in the wake of the 1979 Kaohsiung Incident, when the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime arrested pro-democracy activists.
Other commission members to double as new Control Yuan members are Chi Hui-jung (紀惠容), a long-time women’s rights activist; former League for Persons with Disabilities secretary-general Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋); Youth Rights and Welfare secretary-general Yeh Ta-hua (葉大華); and Antonio Hong (鴻義章), a member of the Presidential Office’s Indigenous Historical Justice and Transitional Justice Committee, said sources familiar with the topic, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The new Control Yuan members are to assume their duties from Aug. 1.
The other commission members are current Control Yuan members: Wang Yu-ling (王幼玲), a long-time activist for the rights of migrant workers and people with disabilities; former Judical Reform Foundation executive officer Kao Yung-cheng (高涌誠); and environmental and human rights activist Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇), the sources said.
Tsai’s list nominated people with expertise and practical experience in various areas of human rights so that the commission would be able to competently handle a variety of rights issues, they added.
The sources said that Tsai nominated four women and three men to be on the commission, in line with the Organic Act of the Control Yuan (監察院組織法), which states that the “composition shall be diverse and include representatives from different ethnic groups or professional fields” and “no gender shall constitute less than one-third of the members.”
The Control Yuan, a body with wide-ranging government oversight powers, has 29 members, including a president and a vice president, who are nominated by the president and approved by the Legislative Yuan.
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
Taiwan-based publisher Li Yanhe (李延賀) has been sentenced to three years in prison, fined 50,000 yuan (US$6,890) in personal assets and deprived political rights for one year for “inciting secession” in China, China's Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said today. The Shanghai First Intermediate People’s Court announced the verdict on Feb. 17, Chen said. The trial was conducted lawfully, and in an open and fair manner, he said, adding that the verdict has since come into legal effect. The defendant reportedly admitted guilt and would appeal within the statutory appeal period, he said, adding that the defendant and his family have
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS