Taiwanese Human Rights Association of Canada Annual
Meeting
Calls for unconditional pardon for Chen Shui-bian.
Amnesty Canada head Alex Neve commends Taiwan for human
rights compliance exercise,
Notes continuing problems, and examples Canada can learn from.
The Taiwanese Human Rights Association of Canada (加拿大台灣人權協會) held its
annual meeting in Toronto on March 24, under the theme “Canada, Taiwan,
and Beyond: Playing our Part in the Human Rights Struggle.” Keynote
speaker was Amnesty Canada Secretary General Alex Neve. About 70 people
attended.
The meeting passed a resolution to “call upon
President Ma to grant an unconditional pardon toformer President Chen, and
allow his family to make their own arrangements for his medical care. (呼籲馬英九總統無條件特赦前總統陳水扁，並允許他的家人自己安排陳前總統的醫療). Neve explained that Amnesty has not adopted Chen as a
prisoner of conscience, because “to
do so we would have to convince ourselves that the accusations of corruption,
and related conviction, are entirely without merit and that his arrest
and sentencing is instead solely on the grounds of his political
views.…We do, however, share these concerns about his deteriorating
health...”
In his speech (full text to be posted on the THRAC
website) Neve commended Taiwan for having recently gone through a remarkable
and precedent-setting human rights exercise. Though not a member of the UN, Taiwan
has taken some admirable steps to endorse and incorporate into Taiwanese
law the provisions of some of the key UN treaties. In particular
the 2 overarching UN Covenants, one dealing with Civil and Political
Rights such as torture, free expression and fair trials, and the other
dealing with Economic, Social and Cultural Rights such as education, health
care and housing have been embraced and folded into Taiwanese law
through an Implementation Act.…In a world where states that are members of the
UN increasingly look for ways to avoid binding themselves to
UN standards and ducking responsibility for compliance– this
voluntary endorsement of three treaties, backed up by legislation, is
truly heartening.”
He praised Taiwan for going even further to invite “a
voluntary review of its compliance with the two Covenants by an impressive team
of highly-respected international human rights experts…. all the more heartening
given the number of governments who … thumb their noses at the UN expert
by not submitting reports and not showing up for review sessions”.
(Links to reports will be on the THRAC website)
Neve also noted many places where implementation of
the covenants in Taiwan is still lacking, especially the death penalty. He
pointed out several places where the “recent initiatives taken in Taiwan
that could very usefully be taken up by Canada (for) strengthening
human rights protection here. The annual meeting also was honoured with
participation from 7 other human rights organizations -Amnesty, KAIROS,
John Howard Society, Canadian Friends of Tibet, Students for a Free
Tibet, Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, and Federation for
a Democratic China. (國際特赦組織、加拿大基督教社會正義工作團、约翰侯活協會, 加拿大西藏之友會、北韓人權委員會、民主中國陣綫).
An executive of 6 people was elected, with a balance of
three longtime workers for human rights, allover 60, and three young Taiwanese
Canadians under 30. They are Akio Chen陳明雄博士, Nick Chen陳孟廷, Nikki Lin林湘斐, Michael
Stainton史邁克, So
Cheng-hian蘇正玄and Austin
Yan顏立哲.
Resolution on Pardon
for Chen Shui-bian
The Annual Meeting
Taiwanese Human Rights Association of Canada, meeting in Toronto on March 24,
2013, in the company of other human rights organizations:
Noting with concern
the continuing reports of the decline in the health of former President
Chen Shui-bian, even while in the care of Taipei Veterans General
Hospital, and
Noting with
appreciation that the government has completed a commendable, thorough and open
process of producing and evaluating the Reports of the Government of
Taiwan on the Implementation of the International Human Rights Covenants, and;
Noting that
the Concluding Observations and Recommendations Adopted by the
International Group of Independent Experts on the Review of the Initial Reports
of the Government of Taiwan on the Implementation of the International Human
Rights Covenants (March 1, 2013, Section 60) “appeals to the
Government of Taiwan on humanitarian grounds to take appropriate action in
relation to the serious health problems of former President
Chen Shui-bian”.
And concerned about
the ongoing damage that the treatment of former President Chen is doing to the
image of Taiwan among its friends around the world, therefore:
Members of the
Taiwanese Human Rights Association of Canada call upon President Ma to grant an
unconditional pardon to former President Chen, and allow his family to make
their own arrangements for his medical care.
特赦陳水扁決議案
加拿大台灣人權協會於2013年3月24日在多倫多,與其他人權組織的陪同,舉行會員大會：
鑑於一連串令人擔憂的報導，陳水扁前總統雖然在台北榮民總醫院接受治療，但是他的健康狀況持續惡化，
又鑑於台灣政府經過一個徹底和開放的程序，已經完成了「台灣政府對於國際人權公約的實施評估報告」；
又鑑於「國際獨立專家團」發表的「審查台灣政府實施國際人權公約狀況之初步報告—總結觀察與建議」（2013年3月1日），在其中第60條「呼籲台灣政府基於人道理由，對陳前總的嚴重健康問題，採取適當的措施」；
且關切對陳前總統的待遇已嚴重傷害台灣在世界各地友人間的形象，因此：
加拿大台灣人權協會全體會員呼籲馬英九總統無條件特赦前總統陳水扁，並允許他的家人自己安排陳前總統的醫療。
《本文已刊登於2013-4-4台灣守護周刊第64期》
沒有留言:
張貼留言