Energy and Resource
As we are nearing the second anniversary of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, Taiwan’s government still has not yet taken its lesson from Japan’s catastrophe and insists on going ahead with the operation and construction of nuclear power plants in Taiwan.
Economy and Industry
Climate  change  and  environment  issues  have  an  unquestionably  close  link  to human  rights.  As  Taiwan  is  located  in  a  region  especially  sensitive  to  climatic change,  directly  addressing  the  relationship  between  climate  change, environmental issues, and human rights is all the more pressing. This alternative reply is a joint submission from Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association, Taiwan, an  environmental  law  group  with  a  focus  on  environmental  and  social sustainability,  and  Taiwan  Rural  Front  (TRF),  an  organization  which  works  on issues  of  land  justice,  ecological  sustainability,  agricultural  development,  and conditions for farmers. We believe that both the Taiwanese government’s Initial Report to the ICCPR and ICRSCR show insufficient concern for climate change issues  and  are  furthermore  ambiguous  with  regard  to  environmental  and  land conflicts  in  recent  years,  which  in  fact  have  seriously  violated  the  rights  of Taiwanese citizens to life, an adequate standard of living, health, and property, as well as their legal rights to due process and public participation. In our submission, we  specify  three  major  areas  of  neglect:  national  land-use  programs,  land expropriation policy, and a lack of transparency obstructing public participation in decision-making  process.  Through  the  examination  process,  we  hope  that  the Taiwanese  government  will  be  urged  to  address  these  issues  with  concrete reforms.
Human And Society
2013-01-29 Emily McKee
Emotions ran high after the announcement, on December 22nd, that the Environmental Impact Assessment was approved for the Miramar Resort on Shanyuan beach.  Since the first EIA was controversially approved for the already half completed development in 2007, it has been declared illegitimate twice by the courts on the grounds that the Taitung government sought to exert influence on the process by appointing several members to the committee who were Taitung officials in support of the Miramar project. The credibility of the panel appointment process has been tainted because of this and as such it came as no big surprise that the newly convened panel gave the green light once again. For the members of the local community and different organized groups who have been protesting the construction it was a dark day of heartbreak and frustration.
Energy and Resource
We believe that the Report oversimplifies the actual conditions of nuclear safety in Taiwan, stating simply that “the government should take incidents such as the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster as cautionary examples and carry out complete nuclear physical examinations, strengthen coordinated response capabilities in the event of a natural disaster, and establish emergency response crew measures, taking all possible steps to prevent a serious and uncontainable nuclear incident.” However, despite aging nuclear facilities and Taiwan's nuclear plants being situated in geologically unstable areas that are frequently visited by earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic activity, and other high-risk geological events, there has been no response to inquires about the frequent mishaps in operation, or what measures will be taken to ensure the safety of Taiwanese citizens' lives, health, and property in the event of a nuclear disaster.
Human And Society
The Truku (太魯閣族,Taroko) people are one of several Austronesian groups living in Taiwan before the arrival of the Han Chinese in the seventeenth century. A group of Truku people of Siou-lin County have been involved in a forty-year dispute with the Asia Cement Company (亞洲水泥股份有限公司) and the local government over occupation and ownership rights to sections of land reserved for indigenous people (“Reserved Land”). On October 19, 2012, the Council of Indigenous Peoples (行政院原住民族委員會 “the Council,” the highest level body dealing specifically with indigenous peoples’ affairs under Taiwanese law) issued a historic judgment on an administrative appeal filed by two Truku people against the local government for refusing their application to transfer the ownership of sections of Reserved Land currently occupied by Asia Cement Company.
Policy Analysis
Judge Zhan Jun-hong of Taiwan's High Court told a defendant in his courtroom that if the defendant withdrew an appeal of the decision, Justice Zhan would make the sentence commutable to a fine and the defendant would not need to return to court. Relying on the judge’s advice, the defendant withdrew the appeal, but the law under which the defendant was sentenced is not one that allows commutation to a fine. Contrary to the judge’s assurance, the defendant ended up serving a sentence. The Judicial Evaluation Committee decided after an inquiry into the case that although the judge's misconduct warranted disciplinary action, his heavy workload was an understandable mitigating circumstance. Instead of sending Judge Zhan’s case to the Control Yuan for impeachment, the Committee instead referred his case to the Judicial Yuan's Personnel Affairs Committee, recommending that he receive two demerits.