Amnesty International Report 2003 - Taiwan

Covering events from January - December 2002

TAIWAN
President: Chen Shui-bian
Head of government: Yu Shyi-kun (replaced Chang Chun-hsiung in February)
Death penalty: retentionist

Executions continued and at least 100 prisoners were reportedly on death row. However, steps were taken to limit the scope and application of the death penalty. A draft Human Rights Basic Law and drafts of a proposed National Human Rights Commission were under consideration by the Legislative Yuan. The Gender Equality Labour Law came into effect in March.

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Background

The delivery of weapons from the USA continued to cause strain in relations between Taiwan and China.

In October President Chen Shui-bian announced that Taiwan would gradually phase out capital punishment and that Taiwan would issue its first national human rights report in March 2003.

Death penalty

At least nine people were executed; executions were conducted by shooting.

Steps were taken to limit the scope and application of the death penalty, and were widely seen as moves towards its abolition. The Act for the Control and Punishment of Banditry, which provided for the death penalty, was abolished in January. In October, the Cabinet drafted and submitted to the Legislative Yuan an amendment prohibiting courts from handing down sentences of death or life imprisonment to offenders under the age of 18. There was also debate within the government and the Legislative Yuan about the introduction of life imprisonment without parole as steps towards the eventual abolition of the death penalty. However, no moves were made towards introducing a death penalty moratorium.

• Hsu Tzu-chiang remained in danger of imminent execution following the Supreme Court's rejection on 21 March of his appeal against a death sentence for kidnapping and murder. He continued to maintain his innocence. The State Public Prosecutor General had made extraordinary appeals to the Supreme Court on his behalf following calls from activists that he had been convicted on weak evidence and that there were flaws in the Court's handling of his case. Hsu Tzu-chiang was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court in April 2000 for a crime committed in 1995. He was implicated on the basis of testimony from two alleged accomplices, one of whom provided a signed statement to Hsu Tzu-chiang's relatives stating that he had incriminated Hsu Tzu-chiang because he had a grudge against him but that Hsu Tzu-chiang had not been involved with the crime.

Legislative reforms

Two draft statutes of a National Human Rights Commission were submitted to the Legislative Yuan, one by the government and the other by a coalition of non-governmental organizations. The legislature was considering adoption of a basic human rights bill that would include incorporation into domestic legislation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The Cabinet reportedly passed the proposed bill. The first Human Rights Policy White Paper was released in January.

The Gender Equality Labour Law came into effect in March. It includes the establishment of an 11-person equality labour committee under the Cabinet's Council of Labour Affairs, an appeal and review committee under each local government and the establishment of appeal channels by companies with more than 30 employees.