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【Joint Statement】Personal Data Protection Act tacitly allows compulsory participation in research — “constitutional interpretation” for National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) is imminent

The original statement is released in April 2022. The English version is translated by Mina Chen and revised by Xinyi Liao, Kuan-Ju Chou. Taiwanese people’s health insurance data has been provided for academic research by the Ministry of Health and Welfare without consent for years. Worse still, when a small number of people filed for opting out, the Ministry had their requests denied. Depriving citizens of prior consent and post-facto control over their own medical data is tantamount to forcing those making use of the national health insurance to render up their data unconditionally for secondary use. Enacted upon the…

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Constitutional Court Rules on National Health Insurance Case – A Win for Opt-Out Right amidst an Overall Unfounded Judgment on Personal Data Protection Act

In Taiwan, individuals covered by mandatory national health insurance have been concurrently deprived of their data autonomy. Misinterpreting the Personal Data Protection Act (hereinafter PDPA), the government neither seeks affirmative consent nor answers any opt-out request from the data subjects when handing their sensitive health information to third parties for secondary use

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Behind Normalcy: Taiwan’s fervent COVID-19 response raise critical privacy and due process concerns

Behind Normalcy: Taiwan’s fervent COVID-19 response raise critical privacy and due process concerns   Author | Elisa Chang Editor | Xin-yi Liao “Relatively normal” might have been how most Taiwanese described their 2021 New Year celebration. After being mostly untouched by the COVID-19 pandemic in its first year, residents in the country continued to enjoy daily activities that were considered a luxury by many – shopping, dining indoors, even going to concerts. Behind the normalcy, however, has been an ongoing series of debate around the country’s disease control endeavors and the rights to privacy. During the 2021 New Year long…

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Public participation in the pandemic: New possibilities or widened divide?

Public participation in the pandemic: New possibilities or widened divide? Author | Elisa Chang Editor | Xin-yi Liao   Since the beginning of the pandemic, Taiwanese government agencies have adopted virtual proceedings in place of in-person ones mandated for land expropriation, urban planning and environmental impact assessment.. The practice became even more widely applied when Taiwan saw an increase in its COVID-19 case count in May 2021after which gatherings that are less time-sensitive were instructed to be put on hold. This is especially the case for urban development projects that typically involve a large number of public stakeholders and are…

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[Activity Note] Refugees of Nine Thousand Miles Road Lecture – The Gap Between Refugees and Stowaways

Author/ Wang Yuzhen,Editor/You Shi Ting, Lin Shu Han, Chen Pei Ru, Translator/ Viv Wong In today’s lecture: “Nine Thousand Miles Road,” Shu Han, Commissioner of the TAHR, and Mr. Xue Weiyu, a lawyer of the Legal Support Foundation, shared with the audience the process of case assistance that has occurred before. Since last year, TAHR has held annual lectures on refugee issues. This year (2021), due to the Covid 19 pandemic, the third lecture is organized online.  Background of Syria In Syria, ordinary people can now be arrested without arrest warrants, and armed attacks can be carried out against the…

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【Speech Transcript】 The Fight Against the Plague of Totalitarianism & Standing in Solidarity with the Fight of the People of Hong Kong (31st Anniversary of the June 4th Forum)

The Fight Against the Plague of Totalitarianism & Standing in Solidarity with the Fight of the People of Hong Kong (31st Anniversary of the June 4th Forum) Shih Yi-hsiang (Secretary General of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights) Speech Transcript The past year has been a particularly difficult year for all, whether it was to the repressed individuals in China, human rights lawyers, the Tibetans, the Xinjiang Uyghurs, the people of Hong Kong, or to other countries around the world that has been affected by the arrest of human rights from China. In regards to any of the above, the…

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【News Transcript】 Loopholes on the Rights of Extralegal Ships Exposed in the Pandemic, Foreign Fishers Unable to Return Home due to Government’s Slow Responses

News Transcript: Loopholes on the Rights of Extralegal Ships Exposed in the Pandemic, Foreign Fishers Unable to Return Home due to Government’s Slow Responses News Transcript/ 02 June 2020 | 1:53 PM/ Shih Yi-hsiang During the pandemic, fishers far off the coasts return to its ports with new challenges. Specifically, despite the boat’s investments and owners all as Taiwanese, what was registered on paper was a foreign ship for expedient purposes. Due to the official statuses as foreign ships, any foreign fisher is unable to enter Taiwan, much less their homes. This epidemic has stranded these groups of foreign workers…

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【Proposition】 Don’t Let President Tsai’s Talk of Rescuing the People of Hong Kong Become an Empty Promise

The following article was published on the Apple Daily on 2020/05/25 Written by Shih Yi-hsiang / Secretary General of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights The Chinese People’s Congress shocked the world on June 22nd with a draft of the “Decision on Establishing and Improving the Legal System and Enforcement Mechanism for the Safeguard of National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region”. The draft spoke of enacting measures against any activities that may subvert the regime and required the Hong Kong government to finish Article 23 to maintain China’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and unity across the two governments.…

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[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

[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…

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[Statement from the Taiwan Association of Human Rights] Statement to respond the the Ministry of the Interior on April 23 regarding the digital ID

[Statement from the Taiwan Association of Human Rights] Statement to respond the the Ministry of the Interior on April 23 regarding the digital ID Since several civil rights group has initiated a petition and statement about “opposing the full renewal of chip identity cards” policy made by the Ministry of Interior (MOI). On April 23, MOI claimed that civil rights groups might misunderstand their policy. Taiwan Association for Human Rights reply again as the followingresponse:   TAHR raise the petition of “Opposing the Full Renewal of Chip Identity Cards“, and proposes that “1. Chipless ID cards should be retained”, “2.…