Human rights groups yesterday welcomed the legislature’s ratification of two UN human rights conventions on Tuesday — 42 years after their signing — and called on the government to turn the treaties into national policy.
以公民與政治權利國際公約 (InternationalCovenant on Civil and Political Rights）關於死刑的規定為例，除規定未廢除死刑的國家，若民眾「非犯情節重大之罪... 不得科處死刑」，還規定「受死刑宣告者，有請求特赦或減刑之權」，及「本公約締約國不得援引本條，延緩或阻止廢除死刑」。
Activists urge end of death penalty following report
By Loa Iok-sin
STAFF REPORTER
Thursday, Mar 26, 2009, Page 2
An Amnesty International report released on Tuesday listed Taiwan as one of the 59 countries that still have the death penalty and anti-capital punishment activists yesterday urged the government to follow the global trend and abolish the practice.
The report said that more than 2,300 people were executed in 25 countries worldwide, while almost 9,000 others were sentenced to death last year.
Faced with public intransigence and what they say is a flawed system, activists support an unofficial moratorium on capital punishment
By Celia Llopis-Jepsen
STAFF REPORTER
Sunday, Jan 04, 2009, Page 13 Taipei Times
On Jan. 17 of last year, Wang Kuo-hua (王國華) lost his third and final trial, sending him to death row on a charge of premeditated murder with rape.
The verdict, however, states that the survivor among Wang's two victims told the court Wang had not raped her or her friend, and her testimony did not indicate that he had planned the murder.
The case illustrates systemic problems with the nation's death penalty system that the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty (廢除死刑推動聯盟) has long campaigned to change.
It is not clear why Wang received the severest sentence, Taiwan Alliance director Lin Hsin-yi (林欣怡) said in a recent interview.
Furthermore, the judge said in the ruling that Wang was apparently mentally ill.
Yet none of these points was taken into account for the sentencing, Lin said.
