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http://www.forum-asia.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2246&Itemid=129
Taiwan should drop charges against HRDs and amend parade and assembly law
(Bangkok, 30 June 2009) Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) and Taiwan Association for Human Rights(TAHR) have jointly called on Taiwan to respect and protect freedom of expression and freedom of assembly by dropping the charges against two prominent human rights defenders, and amending the Parade and Assembly Law in accordance to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) ratified at the Legislative Yuan in March 2009.
The two human rights defenders, Lin Jia Fan, President of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights (TAHR) and Lee Min Tsung, Vice-Chairperson of Amnesty International (AI) Taiwan, were recently charged for allegedly violating the Parade and Assembly Law during peaceful demonstrations held last November 2008. Both Lee and Lin were involved in separate peaceful demonstrations and charged under Article 29 of the Parade and Assembly Law. The law says, “Any parade or assembly ordered dissolution failed to do so and continue despite of the restraint. The leader shall be punished with imprisonment for not more than two years of detention”. Lee, as an assistant professor of the Department of Sociology of National Taiwan University, led a group of 250 students, professors and NGOs members in a “sit-in” protest in front of the Executive Yuan, protesting against excessive force used by police against demonstrators during the visit of a Chinese high ranking official to Taiwan.
Lin led a demonstration of at least 50 people in front of the Legislative Yuan last year on 19 November to demand for the amendment of the Parade and Assembly Law. He is also an associate professor of the department of civic education and leadership of National Taiwan Normal University. “These indictments are indirect contravention with the right to freedom of peaceful assembly as enshrined in the Constitution of Taiwan and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights”, said Emerlynne Gil, Human Rights Defenders program manager of FORUM- ASIA. She said public assembly should be allowed as long as it is peaceful.
The Bangkok-based regional human rights organisation welcomed some of the latest amendments proposed by the Executive Yuan on the Parade and Assembly Law. However, it said that it is still not enough to fully protect the right to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly in Taiwan. The Executive Yuan of Taiwan proposed the amendment of the law on 4 December 2008 after Taiwan’s President promised to amend the law with the slogan during his election campaign, “to adopt the notification system and to give streets back to people”. “The proposed amendments have made some improvements, but the provision requiring the organisers to apply for a permit from the police to hold public assembly is still there. It also allows the police to define certain places as ‘restrictive areas’ where public assembly cannot be held. This vested vast discretionary powers in the police which may be abused on legitimate and peaceful assembly as in the case of Lin Jia Fan and Lee Mi Tsung”, said Tsai Chi-Hsun, the Secretary General of Taiwan Association of Human Rights.The proposed amendments have reduced the permit application period from 5 days to 3 days prior to the public assembly. It has also proposed to take away the imprisonment punishment for violating the law. The Parade and Assembly Law was adopted since 1988, replacing 38 years of Martial Law in Taiwan. It gives wider powers to police to disperse demonstrations and designate restricted areas, while making it compulsory for organisers to apply for permits. Human rights defenders, including students, academics and activists have strongly criticized the unconstitutionality of this law, deemed to have violated Taiwan’s Constitution under Article 14, which states clearly that “The people have freedom of assembly and association”.
FORUM-ASIA is a regional human rights organisation based in Bangkok, Thailand, with 42 members across Asia. TAHR is the first human rights organisation in Taiwan and a member of FORUM-ASIA.
For further inquiries, please contact:
Emerlynne Gil, Program Manager, Human Rights Defender Program, FORUM-ASIA at +66 (0)2 6532940 or email: em@forum-asia.org; or
Tsai Chi-Hsun, Secretary General, Taiwan Association for Human Rights at (phone number) or email: chihsun.tsai@gmail.com
– Best regards,
Susan Loone FORUM-ASIA, Bangkok MANAGER - Information and Communications Programme Website: www.forum-asia.org Email: susanloone@gmail.com Blog: www.sloone.wordpress.com
Give Us a Parade and Assembly Law in Accordance with the Development of Democracy
Alliance for the Amendment of the Parade and Assembly Law Press Release
After the negotiation breakdown of the draft law in March, as it moves on to the decision by vote in the Legislative Yuan, the Alliance for the Amendment of the Parade and Assembly Law has started a series of campaigns to stop the bad version of amendment. During the past two moths, different parties, including NGO workers, scholars, experts from the human rights advisory council, and the newspaper editors have issued severe criticism. The civil society firstly blocked the bad version, lobbying and now trying to lead the amendment to a passing one.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang, KMT) came up with a new version on June 3rd. That indicated the civil society’s pressure and active engagement could guide the authority concerned into communication in making important national policies. The reason why the civil society could not accept and decided to keep resisting the version was because the version is far from a passing one. We’d like to remind the authority concerned and the legislators the important historical meaning of the fist time attempt to amend the law in twenty years. The new version would reflect the development of democracy now in Taiwan. It will also testify whether we are still shadowed by the martial law ideology or we have stride forward to the next stage of democratization.
The Alliance for the Amendment of the Parade and Assembly Law and the Civil Society thus appeal to the ruling party that:
The new amendment should base on the presupposition to give up mandatory registration and the police’s power to order dissolution. It should also specify rules on the police coercive power and the use of riot control tools according to the proportional principle and the protection in the Constitution. Based on the presupposition, we’d like to negotiation further on the specific articles.
Lin Yi-shih. KMT Policy Committee Director mentioned that KMT has never said they would force a decision by vote on the amendment of the Parade and Assembly Law. We ask the ruling party to keep their promise and continue to communicate with the civil society and the opposition party to reach a consensus.
The civil society’s expectation toward a parade and assembly protection law is not high at all. The amendment means much for the reason of the shadowed martial law period and the recent incident of the Chinese envoy’s visit. In early June, Lin Jia Fan, the president of Taiwan Association for Human Rights and Lee Min Tsung, the assistant professor of the Sociology Department of National Taiwan University, were indicted for the violation of the Parade and Assembly when advocating of the amendment of it. The Parade and Assembly Law we have now is a mistake in the history, but the government now is going to take the responsibilities of the new amendment. If by any chance the bad law is passed, the civil society would not hesitate and test the law ourselves to examine the promise of the ruling party to give the streets back to people.
By Loa Iok-sin STAFF REPORTER Friday, Jun 05, 2009, Page 3
Taiwan Association for Human Rights secretary-general Tsai Chi-hsun (蔡季勳) and Chinese democracy activists criticized President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) statement released yesterday to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
“Ma’s statement was too weak,” Tsai told the Taipei Times. “He mentioned remembering history, the 228 Incident and the White Terror but didn’t condemn human rights abuses in China today.”
Tsai jointly issued an open letter calling on the government and the public to pay more attention to human rights in China last week.
She said Beijing not only refuses to admit its mistakes in the bloody crackdown or conduct an official investigation into the incident, but also continues to deny free speech and assembly.
“In recent years, China has even started to arrest lawyers who stand in court to defend people’s legal rights,” she said.
Tsai therefore disagreed with Ma’s comment that China had made progress on human rights. Read the rest of this entry »
Taiwan’s civil society supports the commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of June 4th
We still remember, exactly twenty years ago, how we shed tears as we watched on television the tanks roll into Beijing city, the blood stream down the faces of students and ordinary citizens. We also remember, how Taiwanese politicians both in government and in opposition condemned the Chinese Communist Party, and how celebrities held hands and sang for the demonstrators. We remember, that was the “Wound of History.” [1]
Twenty years later, the people of Taiwan appear to be suffering from collective amnesia. Today, Taiwan’s media and ruling party sing praise for economic development, lauding China’s scenic areas and the impressive architecture in Shanghai and Beijing. We seem to forget that over the past twenty years, China has continued to be ruled by an authoritarian regime. Those who took part in the 1989 demonstration for democracy are still in jail or in exile, and their mothers are still weeping in the darkness. In every corner of China, people are being arrested and locked up for speaking for human rights and protecting minorities. Are we still going to turn a blind eye?
Why should the people of Taiwan pay attention to June 4th? Because this is an important test of our belief in democracy.
First of all, as citizens of a democratic country that fought hard for our democracy, we firmly believe that democracy and human rights are universal values. As we strive to improve our own democracy, we should also care about human rights and democracy in neighboring countries and stand in solidarity with those democracy fighters.
Secondly, the current situation is that economic interests have gained the upper hand in cross-strait relations. Ever since 1989, China has been focused only on making money, while muting all calls for political reform. As Taiwan develops closer ties with China, we seem to have been affected by historical amnesia and democratic apathy. In this atmosphere of cross-strait reconciliation, economic interests have become the top priority whereas human rights seem to be taboo. But if we ignore the call for human rights and democracy out of fear of upsetting China, wouldn’t that be the greatest mockery of the democratic ideals that we ourselves fought so hard for?
We can no longer remain apathetic. On the twentieth anniversary of June 4th, we call on all sectors of Taiwanese society to express our firm commitment to the pursuit of democracy and human rights, to support the prosecution of those responsible for June 4th, and to push for democracy in China.
Signatories:
Mab Huang (黃默), Professor, Soochow University’s Chang Fo-chuan Center for the Study of Human Rights
Peter Huang (黃文雄), Chairman, Amnesty International Taiwan
Wang Hsing-chung (王興中), Director, Amnesty International Taiwan
Tsai Chi-hsun (蔡季勳), Secretary-General, Taiwan Association for Human Rights
Lin Hsin-yi (林欣怡), Executive Director, Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty
Yiong Cong-ziin (楊長鎮), Executive Director, Deng Liberty Foundation
Li Jieh-mei (李介媚), Office Director, Deng Liberty Foundation
Tieh-chih Chang(張鐵志), Writer
[1] “The Wound of History” was the name of a song that a chorus of Taiwnese pop celebrities sang in support of the Tiananmen demonstrators.
新聞報導：東亞人權團體：政院版集遊法 牴觸兩人權公約
News: Rights activists urge Ma to turn words into action
台權會新聞稿
如何落實兩公約，國際社會都在看！–東亞人權代表團呼籲台灣政策應比照國際標準 記者會
Our Solidarity with Taiwan: East Asian Human Rights Defenders Call on Taiwan to fully Implement ICCPR and ICESCR Statement Read the rest of this entry »
May 1 Labor Day Parade: We want “Dignity”, not “Jobless”
Ma, CCA chief ‘Killing human rights’
Protesters demand preservation of Chingmei martial law courtroom and prison memorial
By Dennis Engbarth Taiwan News, Staff Reporter Page 4 2009-04-30 12:28 AM
Over 50 former political prisoners and human rights activists demanded that Council of Cultural Affairs chairperson Huang Pi-twan resign for “wiping out history” and “murdering human rights” in a rally outside the CCA offices in Taipei City yesterday afternoon.
The protest, which included representatives of the 1950s White Terror Victims Association, the Association of Concern for Taiwan Political Victims, the Association of Elderly Political Victims, the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, the Mainlander Taiwanese Association and the Taiwan Truth and Reconciliation Association, took place one day before a CCA public hearing on its decision to change of the name of the Taiwan Chingmei Human Rights Memorial to the Chingmei Cultural Park. Read the rest of this entry »
EDITORIAL: An exercise in wasting time
Wednesday, Apr 29, 2009, Page 8
For civic groups that long hoped for an overhaul of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the amendment expected to pass soon is disheartening. It fails to resolve the problems with the law that prompted calls for an amendment in the first place. Read the rest of this entry »
KMT tosses gauntlet at Taiwan human rights
Taiwan News, Staff Writer Page 6 2009-04-28 12:30 AM
Taiwan’s eroding standard of civic and human rights faces a new threat from the restored rightist Kuomintang government under President Ma Ying-jeou in the form of regressive revisions to the already restrictive Assembly and Parade Law.
Last Friday, opposition Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers occupied the Legislative Yuan Speaker’s podium and blocked passage of the KMT’s proposed revisions, but the bill may be rammed through by the ruling party’s three-fourths majority today over the protests of human rights, judicial reform and other civic and social groups and the DPP itself.
Read the rest of this entry »
Activists pan changes to Assembly and Parade Act
By Shelley Huang STAFF REPORTER Tuesday, Apr 28, 2009, Page 2
Civic groups yesterday slammed the government over a proposed amendment to the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) that would require demonstrators to notify authorities of any demonstration ahead of time, saying that it violated international conventions.
The Taiwan Association for Human Rights said the amendment was not only a violation of human rights, but that it also violated the UN’s International Convenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which was ratified by the legislature last month. Read the rest of this entry »
