The Government Shall Pay Attention to Structural Human
Rights Violation
Stop “Sons Killed by His Father”

 

The Two Covenants have been implemented in Taiwan for 3 years but many human rights indicators have become worse. Why? To diagnose, the non-governmental circles held the Roundtable Discussion for a General Review of Taiwan 's Compliance with the ICCPR and ICESCR on the Human Rights Day, Dec. 10th, 2012 . The human rights societies and 10 experts from academic community pointed out that the problem is due to the inconsistence between acts of government and human rights standards, structural human rights violation by government power, and the unavailability of relief against the authorities' abuse of power.

 

Prof. Chen Tze-Lung, Chairman of Taiwan Criminal Law Association for Financial Study, stated that the top-down control is out of date. People used to regard a ruler as a supervisor or parent before but people-centric is the modern trend. “Human rights are not bestowed by the rulers,” said Prof. Chen. There have been long-term human rights education in foreign countries and Dec. 10th of this year can be the start point towards a country ruled by law and getting rid of old concepts. He also pointed out many long-term shortcomings in Taiwan government such as administrative measures and injunction orders. Restriction of personal freedom should be approved by a court rather than authority according to administrative laws. He appealed that executive power shall be consistent with human rights. However it is the administrative agency enjoying human rights, not civilian people. Prof. Chen emphasized that the rulings of court should be based upon scientific and logical reasoning. Judges in the administrative court should protect human rights of the people, not the rights of the ruler. A nation with rule of law should service its people and accept challenges.

 

Recently the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office revoked second times the non-prosecution decision for Chiang Kuo-Ching Case of Injustice made by the Taipei District Prosecutors Office. Many people thought that there may be a chance for justice. Associate Professor Wu Jing Jin of Department of Law at Aletheia University pessimistically regarded it as a means of delaying for change in the future. It has been more than one year since the first revoking of the non-prosecution decision in September 2011. If one more year passes by and eventually people will forget. This is what the prosecutors want to achieve.

 

Prof. Wu mentioned that, besides Chinag Kuo-Ching Case, there have been other cases of injustice such as Tai Ji Men Case. The case was ruled with final verdict after 3 levels of court trials of no crime committed. The victims filed charges of illegal accusations against prosecutor. However, the prosecutor was able to evade responsibilities under protections by the government. Before the fast track of criminal case prosecution was legalized, the court trials tended to take years, even decades. The general rule is appeal after the first trial followed by the second and third appeal. The accused could possibly have been detained for wrong reasons and prosecutor does not have to be responsible for the wrongs. When justice eventually returned, chances are the recourse period is passed and no one has to be responsible for the human rights violations.

 

Prosecutors think that there are no victims in injustice cases except for the country. They ignore the fact that innocent victims are detained. This has restricted people's right to complain. All the cases are examples of structural human rights violation. Public officials, regardless of being in position or not, should be sued. Prof. Wu pointed out that structural human rights violation cases are basically not restricted by recourse period. He appealed that the government shall refer legislatively and judicially to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. As stated in the Rome Statute, the most serious crimes which attract great attention from the international community cannot be ignored without punishment. In addition, a high official cannot say that he does not know what grass-roots officials have done. This is because that a high official is responsible for supervision and thus he cannot be discharged from liability. If so, grass-roots officials will never shirk their responsibility by “administration according to laws” or “following higher level's instruction.” This is the collective responsibility for structural human rights violation. Prof. Wu hoped that judicature which is consistent with universal values should not be out of contact with the times, especially with international concept of structural crimes.

 

Prof. Huang Yuan-Hao, School of Law , Fu Jen Catholic University, described the sorrowful situation of Taiwan 's human rights with metaphor of “Sons Killed by His Father.” “Instead of protecting civilians, a prosecutor actually persecutes them,” said Prof. Huang. He also analyzed the sorrow of Taiwanese using the hot topic of recent days. The Ministry of Finance issued tax bills to universities. Prof. Huang said that universities have never been issued business taxes for years. Recently universities are asked to pay the taxes evaded for 5 years due to the government's financial difficulties. “Universities have never been issued business taxes since 1949,” Prof. Huang said, “Why should they pay the taxes now?” “If universities should pay the taxes,” he asked, “should someone in the government be responsible for the errors in the past 50 plus years? ” Prof. Huang shared experiences from international practices. The greatest honor for an official in France is to receive a “no responsibility missed” certificate, which is a symbol for law-abiding. Taxing universities is just a tip of iceberg which reveals the excessive power of tax agents. To tax or not is up to tax officials. This event has attracted wide attentions to the taxpayers' human rights issue. The essential challenges for Taiwan to implement the two Covenants are how to strive against structural human rights violation by government power and how to make a breakthrough against self protection among officials.

 

At the Roundtable Discussion for a General Review of Taiwan 's Compliance with the ICCPR and ICESCR, Prof. Wu Jing-Jin (2nd from right) appealed to the government to pay attention to structural human rights violation and to investigate the responsibility of power abuse by referring to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.