Constitutional Court rejects petition against executions
2010/05/28 18:22:32

Taipei, May 28 (CNA) The Justices of Constitutional Court rejected a petition Friday aimed at halting plans to execute the 40 inmates that remain on death row.

"Execution of the death row prisoners would not go against the two United Nations covenants that Taiwan has signed, " the court said, referring to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights that passed Taiwan’s legislature on March 31, 2009 and were signed into law by President Ma Ying-jeou the next month.

The petition was filed by the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty on behalf of the 40 death row inmates. Read the rest of this entry »

Forty death row inmates might be executed
2010/05/29 13:42:59

The Constitutional Court on Friday rejected an application for a constitutional interpretation submitted by a group advocating the end of the death penalty, paving the way for the execution of the 40 convicts on death row. The first ones could be killed as soon as next week after four executions took place in late April — the first since December 2005.

The Judicial Yuan called a press conference later Friday to explain why the petition was not accepted.

The following are excerpts from local media coverage of the issue:

The Liberty Times:
At a seminar with Chiayi district prosecutors Friday, Minister of Justice Tseng Yung-fu said that there is no set timetable for the executions of the 40 death row prisoners. He added, however, that those who had committed the most brutal crimes would be a priority.

The Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty, which filed for the constitutional interpretation on behalf of the 40 death row inmates, voiced regret at the Constitutional Court’s decision. The group said it will call a news conference next week to explain its position and declare its plans.

Meanwhile, it is worth noting that the Ministry of Justice has started working on a set of regulations on how executions are carried out. Read the rest of this entry »

Condemn The Ministry of Justice’s Hasty Executions

The Minster of Justice, Tseng Yung-Fu, signed the orders of the executions, killing the four death row inmates, Chang Chun-Hong, Chang,Wen-Wei, Hong Chen Yeow, and Ke Shi-Ming at a heat on April 30th. The families of them weren’t informed and were not able to meet the four people for the last time before they died.

Without the confirmation with the Judicial Yuan and other consultations, the Ministry of Justice presumed to take the claims to the constitution interpretation as illegal. More, “administration according to law” doesn’t mean that the government could execute inhumanly without informing the family for the last meeting. This move of the state was so reckless that people would lose faith in this country.

We are shocked and enraged at the so called “executions according to law” and list our responses to the reasons for the executions raised by the Ministry of Justice for clarification and public scrutiny:

Illegal Execution of Chang Chun-Hong

On behalf of the 44 death row inmates, TAEDP mandated 7 lawyers, including Nigel N. T. Li, Ku Li-Hsiung, Gao Yong-Cheng to demand a constitutional interpretations from the Grand Justices of Judicial Yuan. But due to time constraints, Chang Chun-Hong, Chang,Wen-Wei, Hong Chen Yeow, and Ke Shi-Ming didn’t provide legal letters of authorization on the day for the demand. Nevertheless, about the procedural items, the Department of Clerks for the Justices of the Constitutional Court sent letters to the 7 lawyers to require resending in the ten days (up to May, 3rd, 2010) after the demand. Besides, at the same time, it also tried to reach the four death row inmates in different prisons to know their wills for constitutional interpretation. Read the rest of this entry »

Open letter to the Minister of Justice of Taiwan

Mr. Tseng Yung-fu

Paris-Taipei, 26 March 2010

Re: The death penalty in Taiwan

Excellency,

We are writing to you further to your statement of March 22, quoted in the Central News Agency, regarding the application of the death penalty in Taiwan.

We welcome the fact that you ordered a review of the cases of the 44 prisoners on death row in Taiwan, which in practice provides more time for in-depth thinking about further steps. We also appreciate last year’s extremely important measures by the government of Taiwan towards the restriction of the use of capital punishment and further progress in the field of human rights. This includes the ratification of the two UN Covenants, respectively on civil and political rights and on economic, social and cultural rights, in April 2009. The establishment by your predecessor of a Task Force on research and promotion of gradual abolishment in the Ministry of Justice, bringing together academics, NGOs, lawyers and other stakeholders to propose alternative measures to replace the death penalty is equally important. This Task Force reportedly held its first meeting earlier this week, and we strongly believe that this initiative should be continued, with a precise workplan and timeframe. Raising awareness among the people of Taiwan on the strong arguments against the death penalty, and the available alternative measures, should be an integral part of the Task Force’s mandate. Awareness raising among magistrates and the judiciary also appears crucial.

We are quite aware that the issue of the death penalty triggers heated debate in the Taiwanese public opinion, and understand that abolishment will be a gradual process. We also welcome the fact that you were quoted as saying that “The option of abolishing is still open”.

We would like, in this context, to draw your attention on the petition filed by the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty (TAEDP) to the Grand Justices for constitutional review on behalf of 14 death row prisoners regarding the lack of legal representation in the third trial(the Supreme Court). TAEDP filed a second petition to the Grand Justices on March 11, 2010, requesting a stay on execution of all 44 death row prisoners while the above-mentioned constitutional review is still pending. In that regard, we urge you to guarantee that no execution will take place before the Grand Justices will rule on this petition, since this would be a clear breach of international human rights standards relating to the death penalty, which impose that all remedies must have been exhausted before any execution can take place.

Last but not least, we believe that certain legislative amendments should be proposed by your government as a matter of urgency, in order to strengthen the procedural safeguards relating to the death penalty in Taiwan. This includes the fact that capital punishment should be decided unanimously by the court ; the public hearing and verbal debates of the two parties should be held at the level of the Supreme Court; and the legal representation of people convicted to the death sentence should be compulsory at every trial.

We sincerely hope that you will take our suggestions into due account, and remain fully available for any further discussion on this key issue.

Yours sincerely

Souhayr Belhassen
President of Fédération Internationale des ligues des Droits de l’Homme
and
Lin Chia-Fan
Chairperson of Taiwan Association for Human Rights
Read the rest of this entry »

國際人權聯盟FIDH 於本週五發表一份公開聲明，要求新任法務部長曾勇夫先生不可輕率簽署死刑執行令，應依國際人權標準，保障死刑犯在刑事程序的基本權益。

目前在台灣有44位定讞的死刑犯，台灣廢除死刑推動聯盟稍早曾為其中14位終審沒有辯護律師的個案聲請大法官釋憲。今年3月，台灣廢除死刑推動聯盟準備再次為44位死囚個案提出大法官釋憲聲請。目前必要的法律救濟仍在進行中，法務部不可在此時任意執行死刑。另外，台灣政府去年正式批淮政治公民權利國際公約，其中第六條第四款明確保障任何被判處死刑的人應要求赦免或減刑之權利。

國際人權聯盟FIDH(International Federation for Human Rights)是1922年成立的第一個國際非政府人權組織，總部設在法國巴黎，由全球100多個國家155個人權組織所組成。FIDH成立的主要目的是為了維持正義、自由和公平這三個重要價值。因此人權維護、受害人扶助、司法監督、刑事正義、對於其他非政府組織之協助、喚醒各國人權意識等等，都是FIDH的優先工作目標。FIDH曾在許多國家，例如：美國、泰國、查德、日本、埃及、台灣等地方，進行國際死刑判決的事實調查任務(fact-finding mission)並出版個別國家報告(country report)，希望透由實地的調查瞭解，協助及促成全世界死刑的早日廢除。

參考網站：http://www.fidh.org

國際人權聯盟FIDH與台灣人權促進會致台灣法務部長曾勇夫之公開信
Read the rest of this entry »

The original article was publised on Taipei Times March 22nd, 2010

By Liu Ching-yi 劉靜怡

Monday, Mar 22, 2010, Page 8
Former minister of justice Wang Ching-feng’s (王清峰) statement that she would never authorize the execution of a prisoner on death row and her subsequent resignation caused quite a controversy. Suddenly, everyone seems to be an expert on capital punishment, while both Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) politicians have showen serious confusion over the issue. This shows that neither the government nor the opposition have been practising what they have been preaching for so many years.

Ever since Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) became justice minister when the DPP administration took office in 2000, the party has closely followed the spirit of international treaties by declaring the death penalty should be abolished and by placing a moratorium on death sentences. However, over the past few days, statements by DPP Chairperson Tsai Ying-wen (蔡英文) and other DPP politicians imply they have forgotten that it was their party that initiated the move to incorporate the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights into Taiwanese legislation when the party was in power.
Read the rest of this entry »

It’s a dilemma for the Minister of Justice, and it’s a dilemma for all
Statement / Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty / March 12, 2010

‘I never blamed those who claim their support for the death penalty in public. It’s a moral choice to stand for or against the death penalty and the choice belongs to one’s conscience. What bothers me is that, an intellectual, a self-proclaimed abolitionist is content to retain the death penalty, just because the public poll and opinion are for it.’
~ A public letter to Minister of Justice of the France, Robert Badinter, 1977

Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty expressed its deep regrets to the matter that the oral resignation rendered by the Minister of Justice Wang Ching Feng yesterday has been accepted by the Premier Wu Den Yih and the President Ma Ying Jeou.

Minister Wang Ching Feng has expressed her personal position supporting abolition of the death penalty in her inauguration. After the ICCPR and the ICESCR were ratified in Taiwan, she continued the policy on gradual abolition of the death penalty, carefully examined cases convicted to death and imposed the moratorium of executions. She also established the taskforce on research and promotion of gradual abolition in the Ministry of Justice which aims to bring in academics, experts and stakeholders on this issue to have a deep discussion and form the alternative measures to replace the death penalty. We pay contribute to this initiation and express our deep regrets for her sudden step-down last night.

We call on the President’s Office, the Executive Yuan, the Legislative Yuan and the parties in governance and in opposition do put the short-term interests of elections ahead of the issue, but stand on the values of human rights and think carefully for the next step that Taiwan should take. Read the rest of this entry »

Taiwan must not go back to death road
Taiwan News, Page 9
2010-03-12 12:00 AM

President Ma Ying-jeou has again displayed his lack of political leadership and courage by failing to stand up for Justice Minister Wang Ching-feng, a long time advocate of the abolishment of the death penalty, now that she has come under severe pressure for her firm stance not to implement death sentences.

Wang is not the first justice minister to refuse to sign death sentence orders as the current string of four years in which no death sentence has been executed began in 2006 under the former Democratic Progressive Party president Chen Shui-bian and then justice minister Shih Mao-lin.

When justice minister in 1997, Ma himself refused to sign order for the execution of the so-called "Hsichih Trio," three youths who charged that their confessions to a 1992 murder charge for which they received the death sentence had been extracted by police through torture.

The reasons for their actions include both the growing global consensus to abolish the death penalty as a "cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment" and to uphold the principle that "every human being has the inherent right to life."

Only 25 nations in the world, including the authoritarian People’s Republic of China, now have the death penalty. Many states which still retain capital punishment in form no longer carry out death sentences, while numerous countries, including Great Britain, have abolished capital punishment even though a majority of the population still supports retaining the death penalty. Read the rest of this entry »

Ministry of Justice seeks to ban death penalty
Publication Date：02/02/2010

Taiwan’s government is working to remove the death penalty from the country’s statute books but there is no timetable for achieving this goal, according to Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng Feb. 1.

“Abolishing capital punishment is an MOJ policy,” Wang said, adding that this could only be accomplished after society-wide consensus has been reached.

According to the MOJ, a 27-strong task force comprising scholars, legal experts and representatives of victims has been established to review the statute and a number of associated issues. Based on the group’s recommendations, the ministry will seek to replace the death penalty with life imprisonment, reform prison administration, further protect victims’ rights and strengthen law and order.

“Research shows that abolishing the death penalty does not lead to an increase in crime,” Wang said. “No one has been executed in Taiwan since December 2005 and the national crime rate has not risen.” Read the rest of this entry »

NGOs call for universal abolition of death penalty

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Taiwan called on the government and the rest of the world Saturday to take measures to abolish the death penalty, as they marked World and European Day against the Death Penalty, which also falls on Taiwan’s National Day.

The Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty (TAEDP), Human Rights Education Curriculum and Instruction Team, Humanistic Education Foundation, Taiwan Association for Human Rights, Chang Fo-chuan Human Rights Study Center of Soochow University and the European Economic and Trade Office (EETO) in Taipei made the appeal at a joint press conference.

The groups called on the public to support a global “Appeal for the End of Execution of Children in the World” initiated by World Coalition Against the Death Penalty.

A series of four workshops on the theme “See the Color of Life: Understanding the Death Penalty” was being launched the same day to train a seed group of social workers to raise awareness and widen debate on the issue, the NGOs said.

“Support for abolition of the death penalty remains an individual decision. That is why a better understanding of the issue is required in order to form an opinion, “ said Nicolas Baudouin, policy officer of the EETO’s Political and Economic Affairs, at the press conference.

Lin Chia-fang, deputy convener of TAEDP, said that although abolition of the death penalty is a very controversial issue, every human being, including prisoners sentenced to death, has a right to human dignity, which is the most basic concept of human rights.

Feng Chiao-lan,executive director of Humanistic Education Foundation, said that the death penalty is a tool used by governments to rule through fear.

“When we take someone’s life, we also trade our humanity,” she added.

As of the June 2009, 139 countries had joined the campaign against the death penalty, 55 of which have abolished capital punishment since 1990.

A “de facto moratorium” on the death penalty has been in effect in Taiwan since 2005 when the last execution was carried out.

On May 14 this year, President Ma Ying Jeou signed the ratification of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Baudouin said these recent developments in Taiwan are positive, as they provide a solid framework for the promotion of human rights and for further progress toward abolishing the death penalty.

World Day Against the Death Penalty annually gathers international non governmental organizations, bar associations, unions and local governments from all over the world to lobby for the abolition of the death penalty.

It was launched on Oct. 10, 2003 by the World coalition Against the Death Penalty.

In 2008, at least 2,390 people were executed in 25 countries, while more than 8,800 people were sentenced to death in 52 countries, the press release said, adding that 93 percent of all known executions took place in five countries — China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the U.S. and Pakistan.

source: http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2009/10/11/228151/NGOs-call.htm