The leader of a movement to rectify the nation’s labeling on Norwegian residency cards on Saturday vowed to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, after the Norwegian Supreme Court on Tuesday last week turned down their appeal against a lower court’s ruling.
The initiator of the “Taiwan: My Name, My Right” student movement, an Oslo-based lawyer who identifies himself as Joseph, said that he never thought the court would be unwilling to grant the petitioners even the most basic of procedural rights.
The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration has since 2010 labeled Taiwanese residents as being from Kina — the Norwegian word for China — on their residency cards.
Students in 2017 petitioned the agency to change the designation, but the directorate dismissed the appeal on the grounds that “such designation does not affect the interested party’s rights and obligations in Norway.”
The group then launched a crowdfunding campaign to bring the issue to court, raising NT$3.23 million (US$112,114 at the current exchange rate) by the time it closed on Sept. 30, 2018.
They hired lawyers and in August last year brought the case to the Oslo District Court.
After losing the first trial on April 28, two subsequent appeals were also dismissed on Sept. 11 and last week.
In each instance, judges rejected the case, saying that the plaintiffs had “no grounds for appeal.”
The group said that it has the right to a fair trial, to remediation and to privacy, among other rights, as the nationality designation does not accord with reality.
The Supreme Court has declined to comment on the case, only saying that “the Appeals Committee finds it unanimously clear that the appeal cannot proceed.”
The group in its original crowdfunding campaign had raised the possibility of appealing to the European Court of Human Rights if the suit failed within Norway’s three-tier appeal system.
Norway was a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights, which states that litigants have the right to appeal to the court within six months of exhausting the signatory’s appeal system.
The group said that it would hire more lawyers and strive to build a solid legal team before the trial.
“Leaving Norway is a brand-new start,” the group wrote on Facebook.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday expressed “deep regret” at the court’s decision, saying it was “gravely concerned” about its failure to explain its reasoning or offer the students any form of remediation.
The issue involves the litigants’ right to identity, and therefore possesses substantive legal interest, it said.
It said it has instructed the nation’s representative office in Sweden to lodge a complaint with the Norwegian government.
Beijing often uses economic means to coerce governments and businesses into bending to its will and minimizing Taiwan’s status, raising concern among the international community, the ministry said.
For example, after Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, Beijing halted imports of salmon from Norway, the world’s biggest producer, it said.
Taiwan last year began holding annual human rights consultations with the EU to bring issues such as the Norway case to the group’s attention, the ministry said, adding that it hopes to continue formal negotiations on the issue and keep seeking partnerships with like-minded nations.
Taiwan is Taiwan, and is not a part of the People’s Republic of China, the ministry said, adding that the case is an important question of human rights.
It said it would continue to help the affected students fight for their rights, including at the European Court of Human Rights.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by