Sketching the Blueprint for Abolishing Death Penalty in Taiwan

Sketching the Blueprint for Abolishing the Death Penalty in Taiwan
Book Launch and discussion panel on the new book
New Ideology beyond thePros and Cons of Death Penalty

June 1st, 2009 TAEDP Press Release

Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty (TAEDP 廢除死刑推動聯盟) is hosting the launch of New Ideology beyond the Pros and Cons of the Death Penalty today. It is an essay collection grown out of the conference of “New Perspectives on Abolishing the Death Penalty” Seminar organized by the TAEDP in November 2008. The seminar was attended by both Taiwanese and German experts, who shared and discussed theoretical interpretations of death penalty issues and their extensive practical experiences in the field. In addition to essays by academic scholars, the book provides a faithful account of the various discussions during the conference, including aspects related to social security, prison reform, and victim protection. This book aims to provoke and instill new ways of thinking on the issue of death penalty among the Taiwanese public, and eventually to lead to the abolition of death penalty in Taiwan. The book is published with the sponsor of the German Institute Taipei (德國在台協會) and help from Angle Publishing Co. (元照出版社).

The Chiarperson of TAEDP, Professor CHIU Hei-yuan (瞿海源教授), and the Director General of the German Institute Taipei, Ms. Brigitt Ory, attend the launch to present the book. The book contains essays of four German scholars including Prof. Dr. Hans-Jurgen Kerner, Dr. Uwe Meyer-Odewald, Dr. Armin Frühauf and Mr. Gerd Delattre on dimensions namely social security, prison reform and victim protection. Furthermore, the book gives plenty pages to discussion between German scholars and fifteen Taiwanese experts who participated the conference.

The book is recommended by many Taiwanese experts in different fields related to death penalty issues, including two Grand Judges, Mr. Chen Shin-min (陳新民大法官) and Ms. HSU Yu-hsiu (許玉秀大法官), Priest Huang Ming-jiang (黃明鎮牧師) who has full experience on edification of prisoners, Attorney CHEN Shu-zhen (陳淑貞律師) who has been devoting herself to victim protection for years, Attorney Nigel N.T. LI (李念祖律師) who has worked on defending death row inmates for a long time, and Prof. LIN Kou-ming(林國明教授) from Sociology Department of Taiwan University.

The abolition of the death penalty is a complicated issue, which has been argued tensely in Taiwan. TAEDP expects to develop more dialogues with the public and discuss the issue from different dimensions. The book will be distributed as a present to the President, Premiers of the five Yuans, all legislators, Grand Judges, courts and prosecutors offices, in the hope to enlarge the space of public dialogue.

A discussion panel is held after the book launch on the following issues.  The five panelists are Prof. WU Chih-kung (吳志光教授) from law faculty of Fu Jen University, Mr. Pit Köhler, the Deputy Director General of German Institute Taipei (德國在台協會副處長柯彼特先生), Prof. LEE Mau-sheng (李茂生教授) from law faculty of Taiwan University, Attorney Nigel N.T. LI (李念祖律師) and Prof. LIAO Fu-te (廖福特教授) who is the board member of Taiwan Association for Human Rights.

1.    Is the lifetime imprisonment with parole a possible alternative of the death penalty in Taiwan?
2.    Is Sicherungsverwahrung (a social security monitoring system) a possible alternative measure in Taiwan to replace the death penalty? Regardless if it is a suitable alternative measure, how can we be inspired by this idea?
3.    What other positive measures should Taiwan take in addition to continuing the moratorium? The ratification of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its enforcement rule implicates that the government should initiate a concrete legislative plan and timetable to carry out related legislation. What kind of legislative plan, including the relevant legislation of victim protection, do we need?
4.    It is proven that death penalty is not a useful system to maintain social security according to the probability of recommitting a crime and related data. How can we explain this fact well to the public?

More Information, please contact
LIN Hsinyi Executive Director of TAEDP, +886 (0)2-27098983