Exclusive human rights agency to be established: vice president

Exclusive human rights agency to be established: vice president

2011/01/08 

Taipei, Jan. 8 (CNA) Vice President Vincent Siew said Saturday that a human rights committee under the Presidential Office will set up an agency specifically to report on the human rights situation throughout the country.

The agency will function in compliance with the Paris Principles, Siew said during a human rights discussion with experts and scholars in the latest weekly online journal broadcast by the Presidential Office.

"I hope the committee will work out a mechanism to effectively strengthen the protection of human rights in this country and establish an exclusive agency to handle related matters based on the Paris Principles," he said. 

The first task of the committee, which was set up on Dec. 10 International Human Rights Day, was to devise a mechanism for reporting on human rights nationwide in line with two international conventions -- the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, he added.

In response to a call for the death penalty to be abolished in Taiwan, the vice president said the government is moving toward that goal but it cannot be achieved overnight, or before a consensus has been reached.

The 18-member Presidential Committee on Human Rights is led by Siew and Chai Sung-lin, honorary president of the Taipei-based Chinese Association for Human Rights. Other members include Vice Premier Sean Chen and people from the private sector.

The Paris Principles were formulated at the first International Workshop on National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in Paris in October 1991. The principles were adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Commission in 1993. They relate to the status and functioning of national institutions for the protection and promotion of human rights. (By S. H. Lee and Flor Wang) enditem /pc