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
2013-01-15 Ya-ying TsaiTranslated by: Sophie Jin
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
2013-01-14 Shih-Wei LuTranslated by: Sophie Jin
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
2012-12-25 Lin Feng-ZhengTranslated by: Sophie Jin
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.
