Taiwan and South Korea led Asia in human rights last year, while China was the worst in the region across a plethora of metrics, the Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI) said in a news release on Thursday.
The HRMI, a New Zealand-based group that has been monitoring the human rights performances of nations since 2017, in its latest report gauged the level of protection for 14 internationally recognized rights in 194 countries, it said.
“South Korea and Taiwan’s high scores for safety from the state show that most people are protected from government abuse,” HRMI global spokeswoman Thalia Kehoe Rowden said in the report. “Their scores are the highest among all 30 countries in our sample of these civil and political rights.”
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
Taiwan scored 9.5 out of 10 in the right to freedom of religion and belief in the first-ever measurement of this right by the HRMI, the report said.
Despite the relatively robust protection for civil rights in Taiwan, inequities remain, with a significant number of Taiwanese being unable to fully enjoy their rights, Rowden said, adding that it was also the case for South Korea.
HRMI tracks the development of countries and the movement of governments’ respect for human rights, the report said.
It utilizes a survey that is distributed to human rights experts such as journalists, non-governmental organizations and lawyers, making it difficult to collect accurate data in places such as China that have tight controls on those sectors, it said.
China was the country with the worst human rights record for several measures, it said.
On freedom from arbitrary arrest, only Kazakhstan scored worse, HRMI said.
China and Hong Kong scored among the worst in empowerment rights, their scores in the “very bad” range for three consecutive years, it said.
“Human rights experts identified people who oppose or criticize the government as being particularly at risk of having their right to freedom of association violated, including their right to form or join political parties,” HRMI East and Southeast Asia lead Michaelle Phoenix Yeo said in the report.
These groups were placed “at particularly high risk of arbitrary arrest, forced disappearance, torture and other violations,” Yeo said.
China had some of the worst scores in safety from the state, several of which were in the “very bad” range, including the right to freedom from the death penalty, which was its lowest, HRMI said.
“China’s extensive use of the death penalty is veiled in secrecy,” Yeo said. “Through our research, human rights experts have identified people who are accused of crimes, terrorism or political violence as being at particular risk. They also reported that death penalty executions are often applied after unfair trials, placing anyone accused of such offenses in jeopardy.”
China also scored worst on the freedom of religion and belief indicator, although the pilot study only covered nine countries, the report said.
However, on some economic indicators, such as the right to food, health and housing, China scored relatively high, ranking near the top of more than 100 surveyed countries, it said.
HRMI uses publicly available statistics published by national and international institutions for its economic indicators, it said.
Some people in China, such as critics of the government and ethnic minorities, often miss out on basic economic rights, it said.
Hong Kong has dropped in HRMI’s index over the past few years.
Although it does not score as badly as China, it has had a rapid decrease in many rights since a crackdown on a democracy movement in 2019 and 2020.
Its ranking for freedom of assembly has declined by nearly 40 percent and freedom of expression has dropped 33 percent, the report said.
Hong Kong’s score for freedom from arbitrary arrest had improved, increasing by 85 percent, but this was because the index was based on instances of actual rights violations, Rowden said.
“In this repressive context, the rise in scores for freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention is not good news,” she said. “It just means that the repression is working.”
“Hong Kong’s scores for democratic rights and freedoms plummeted over 2019 to 2021 and have remained appallingly low,” she added.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS