[Policy Statement] The Legislative Yuan should stay within its authority, amend the implementation date of the Comprehensive National Identity Card Replacement Method, and restart the discussions
The "Comprehensive National Identity Card Renewal Method" (hereinafter referred to as the "Renewal Method") was sent to the Legislative Yuan's council today and has been proposed by all opposite parties to be submitted to the Internal Affairs Committee for review. The Taiwan Association for Human Rights calls for the Legislative Yuan to take the duty provided by Articles 60 to 62 of the Act of Execution of Legislative Yuan's Functions and Power in the future. The association calls for the Yuan to substantively review the legitimacy of the "Renewal Method" and to at least request the Ministry of the Interior to postpone the starting date for the implementation of the measures.
The request on the review of the legitimacy of the "renewal method" comes first from the violation of due process. According to the method, the Ministry of Interior should make a policy about comprehensive renewal of the identity card. The Ministry of the Interior issued this mehod in March 2020, but the last article of this renewal method stated that it will take effect on January 1, 2019. That is to say, the effectiveness of this method will be traced back immediately when it is issued for nearly 1 year and 3 months.
Why is itcausing serious problem? The reason is that the third article of this method stipulates that in order to renew the identity card, a "full renewal plan" should be formulated; furthermore, this "full renewal plan" must convene "a planning group composed of a specific proportion of certain personnel" to discuss in order for an effective renewal plan.
The renewal method goes back one year and three months. Not only does this mean that the comprehensive renewal plan approved by the Executive Yuan mid-June last year get its legal standard, but it also legitimizes the effectiveness of various working group meetings.
For a long time, civil organizations have continued to raise many questions about the legal basis for the issuance of chip ID cards. The government has always insisted that the full replacement of chip ID cards has been authorized by the Household Registration Law. And according to the law, as what government should do is to enacta method of renewal. But the question is, if the government carries out the legal claims it insists on in a time-distorting manner, does that mean a precedence where all future administrative actions related to the rights and interests of the people can be taken afterwards by simply legalizing such actions at a later time?
We would also like to ask the Executive Yuan and the Ministry of Interior: without the guidance of renewal method, how should the members of the working team proceed to review the plan?
After the renewal method was released in March this year, the Taiwan Association for Human Rights had immediately requested the Ministry of the Interior to disclose information. Specifically, by requesting the Ministry to publicly reissue the plan, the minutes of previous working group meetings, and the sign-in documentations. Unfortunately, in the government's recent reply, only the plan about renewal was disclosed, meeting records and sign-in paper were still in the blackbox. Therefore, there’s no way for citizens to check the discussions at the time and the composition of t the working group. This also highlights that the retroactive implementation of the renewal method, will make citizens almost impssiible to check the accountability and legitimacy of renewal policy..
This creates an extremely ridiculous situation for the people. Therefore, the Taiwan Human Rights Association also calls for the Legislative Yuan, especially the Democratic Progressive Party with the majority seats, do not let the administrative agencies act without transparency and accountability.
We request for the Legislative Yuan:
- The "Comprehensive Renewal Method of National Identity Card" should be sent to the Committee for substantive review, and the committee should require the Ministry of the Interior restart the discussion of the "Comprehensive Renewal Plan" by requesting the Ministry of the Interior to revise the implementation date of the method.
- Review the legal basis for the government to issue digital chip ID cards.
Footnotes:
- [Taiwan Power Council -> Ministry of the Interior] The Taiwan Power Council will disclose the comprehensive replacement method of the chip identity card, the minutes of all meetings and the sign-in slips: www.tahr.org.tw/sites/default/files/u87/2020320-nei_zheng_bu_.pdf
- [Ministry of the Interior -> Taiwan Power Council] The Ministry of the Interior responded to the Taiwan Power Council, only providing a list of relevant meetings, but refused to provide the minutes and sign-in forms of all meetings: www.tahr.org.tw/sites/default/files/u87/nei_zheng_bu_eidhui_han_. pdf
