★ Taiwan's Human Rights by world reports
    

 ★   US Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released at 2023-3-20 (state.gov/reports/2022-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/taiwan/):
♦  In 2020 presidential and legislative elections, there were allegations of vote buying by candidates and supporters of both major political parties.
♦  In the year to May, 21 high-ranking officials, 38 mid-level, 83 low-level, and 18 elected officials were indicted for corruption.
♦ Defamation and public humiliation are criminal offenses.  Reporters faced the threat of legal action under the liberal libel laws.
♦ Migrant fishermen reported abuses by senior crewmembers, including beatings, withholding of food and water, retention of identity documents, wage deductions, and noncontractual compulsory sharing of vessel operational costs. These abuses were particularly prevalent in Taiwan’s large distant-waters fishing fleet, which operated without adequate oversight. Foreign workers were often reluctant to report employer abuses for fear the employer would terminate their contract, subjecting them to possible deportation and leaving them unable to pay off debts to recruiters.Foreign workers generally faced exploitation and incurred significant debt burdens during the recruitment process due to excessive brokerage fees, guarantee deposits, and high charges for flights and accommodations. Brokerage agencies often required workers to take out loans for “training” and other fees at local branches of Taiwan banks in their home countries at high interest rates, leaving workers vulnerable to debt bondage. NGOs suggested authorities should seek further international cooperation with labor-exporting countries, particularly on oversight of transnational labor brokers.Foreign fishermen were commonly subjected to mistreatment and poor working conditions. Fishermen working on Taiwan-flagged vessels operating beyond Taiwan’s territorial waters (the distant-waters fishing fleet) were not afforded the same labor rights, wages, insurance, and pensions as those recruited to work within Taiwan’s territorial waters.

Employers are subject to civil but not criminal charges when their employees are involved in fatal accidents due to unsafe working conditions.  In 2021, 18.9 percent identified violations,  primarily in sectors including wholesale and retail, logistics and transportation, accommodation, and food services.
♦ Employers, however, reportedly used tactics such as increasing the number of workers employed so the 50 percent threshold could not be met. Trade unions also reported the use of antiunion tactics to intimidate workers and activists. The right to strike remained highly restricted. Teachers, civil servants, and defense industry employees do not have the right to strike. Workers in industries such as utilities, hospital services, and telecommunication-service providers are allowed to strike only if they maintain basic services during the strike. Authorities may prohibit, limit, or break up a strike during a disaster.

♦  A rise in the number of reports of child sexual exploitation cases from 1,060 in 2018 to 1,879 in 2021. NGOs raised concerns about online sexual exploitation of children: they reported sex offenders increasingly used cell phones, web cameras, live streaming, apps, and other new technologies to deceive and coerce underage girls and boys into sexual activity. The NGOs called for increased prosecutions and heavier penalties. Reporting of child sexual exploitation online to the Ministry of Health and Welfare increased steadily in recent years
♦  Many survivors did not report rape for fear of social stigmatization, and NGOs and academic studies estimated the total number of sexual assaults was seven to 10 times higher than the number reported to police. Some abused women chose not to report incidents to police due to social pressure not to disgrace their families.  Number of cases of sexual harassment 41 percent increase over the previous year.
♦  Taiwan journalists reported difficulty publishing content critical of the PRC, alleging that PRC authorities had pressured Taiwan businesses with operations in the PRC...
　

Dr. Joseph Nye ( a former dean of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, and a former assistant secretary of defense,  a deputy assistant secretary of state ) said in a speech under the theme of "Taiwan's Soft Power" at Dec. 8, 2010 that :“The answer is as long as Taiwan stands for democracy and human rights, that will be impossible ( the Americans make a deal and sell out Taiwan forsomething that they want from China) in American political culture.”

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★ Global Times, 2022-12-19: There are forces on the island who are mentally controlling the Taiwan people...

★ Taipei Times, 2023-1-14: There are also domestic issues of concern to human rights advocates. Migrant workers in domestic services, fishing, farming, manufacturing, food processing and construction continue to be subjected to unfair conditions. While amendments have sought to increase pay, supervise treatment of workers on distant-water fishing vessels and improve living conditions at factories, wages for migrant workers remain lower than the minimum wage. Live-in caregivers are also frequently denied appropriate leave, while there are reports of abuse and unfair restrictions. Taiwan was “already among a very, very small number of countries in the world that still retain the death penalty, and the arguments that are time and again repeated by the government are far from convincing.” Taiwan also continues to prosecute people accused of defamation in criminal court. The US Department of State said in its 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices last year that “under the law, those [in Taiwan] who commit slander or libel by ‘pointing out or disseminating a fact which will injure the reputation of another’ are subject to a sentence of up to two years or a fine.”  taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2023/01/14/2003792561

★ US Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released at 2022-4-12 (state.gov/reports/2021-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/taiwan/):

♣ Worker Rights
nLarge enterprises frequently made it difficult for employees to organize an enterprise union through methods such as blacklisting union organizers from promotion or relocating them to other work divisions. These methods were particularly common in the technology sector.
nThere was reported discrimination, including employment discrimination, against persons with HIV or AIDS
nForced labor occurred primarily in sectors reliant on migrant workers, including domestic service, fishing, farming, manufacturing, meat processing, and construction.
♣ Child prostitutes
nThe Control Yuan reported in August that its analysis of official statistics from 2005-20 showed the number of male victims of child sexual exploitation was increasing and that male and female minors of indigenous heritage were targeted at higher rates than those of other ethnic groups.
nThe Taiwan High Prosecutor’s Office reported a rise in child sexual exploitation cases in 2018, 2019, and 2020, with 1,060, 1,211, and 1,691 indictments, respectively.
nNGOs raised concerns about the online sexual exploitation of children and reported sex offenders increasingly used cell phones, web cameras, live streaming, apps, and other new technologies to deceive and coerce underage girls and boys into sexual activity; the NGOs called for increased prosecutions and heavier penalties.
♣ Corruption
nIn 2020 presidential and legislative elections, President Tsai Ing-wen won re-election,...there were allegations of vote buying by candidates and supporters of both major political parties.
n13 high-ranking officials, 79 mid-level, 93 low-level, and 18 elected officials were indicted for corruption.
♣ Freedom of speech
nCTi News was forced off the air after the National Communications Commission declined to renew its broadcast license. Opposition politicians and some academics and commentators claimed the decision was politically motivated retaliation for CTi News’ criticism of the ruling party.
n Reporters faced online bullying and the threat of legal action, particularly under the liberal libel laws. These provisions allow the subjects of unfavorable press coverage to press criminal and civil charges directly against journalists and media outlets for defamation.
♣ Foreign laborers
nForced labor occurred primarily in sectors reliant on migrant workers, including domestic service, fishing, farming, manufacturing, meat processing, and construction. Foreign workers were often reluctant to report employer abuses for fear the employer would terminate their contract, subjecting them to possible deportation and leaving them unable to pay off debts to recruiters
nMigrant fishermen reported abuses by senior crewmembers, including beatings, withholding of food and water, retention of identity documents, wage deductions, and noncontractual compulsory sharing of vessel operational costs to retain their labor. These abuses were particularly prevalent in Taiwan’s large distant-waters fishing fleet, which operated without adequate oversight.
nForeign workers were often reluctant to report employer abuses for fear the employer would terminate their contract, subjecting them to possible deportation and leaving them unable to pay off debts to recruiters.
nForeign fishermen were commonly subjected to mistreatment and poor working conditions. NGOs reported that foreign fishing crews in the distant-waters fishing fleet generally received wages below the required minimum...
nAuthorities estimated that more than 53,000 migrant workers were concentrated in the domestic work and manufacturing sectors. NGOs reported that some migrant workers legally employed as domestic workers were in fact informally employed outside the home...

♣  PS: Taiwan has persecution cases which has not been included in US Human Rights report

★ justsecurity.org, Focus Taiwan, Taipei Times, etc, 2022-5-13: Invited by Taiwan's government, an international human rights experts panel conducted a five-day review from May 9-13 in Taipei of the country's implementation of two United Nations' human rights-related covenants, namely the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
nfreedom of speech and of peaceful protest continues to be unduly restricted.

n The panel's report also highlighted the absence of legislation to curb torture and discrimination in Taiwan.   “The information provided by the government clearly shows that there are many allegations of torture against law enforcement officials in Taiwan,” the report said, adding that those cases only led to disciplinary action instead of criminal prosecution.  The nation has yet to make incorporate torture — the crime of inflicting severe mental or physical pain or suffering on a powerless person for a particular purpose as defined in international law — into its Criminal Code

nThe human rights panel experts are critiquing Taiwan's record on issues such as the death penalty, torture, gender equality, broader forms of discrimination, the status of indigenous peoples, and the rights of migrant domestic workers (especially given the greater burdens on caregivers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic).

nThe Concluding Observations and Recommendations of the international review committee underlined the importance of Taiwan completing its process of incorporating key norms into its domestic law, by adding the three conventions – the Convention Against Torture, the Convention on Migrant Workers, and the Convention on Enforced Disappearances. The committee also reiterated the need to explicitly prohibit torture in Taiwan’s criminal code.  The review committee also urged Taiwan to issue a declaration (pursuant to Article 12 of the Rome Statute) recognizing the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

n international panel experts called on Taiwan to end the “cruel and degrading” practice of capital punishment.  The nine-member group said it was "extremely disappointed" at the failure of Taiwan's government to address the issue.  "Taiwan is already among a very, very small number of countries in the world that still retain the death penalty, and the arguments that are time and again, repeated by the government, are far from convincing,"  experts said the "cruel, inhuman and degrading" punishment was in violation of ICCPR's Article 6 and 7.

nTaiwan’s failure thus far to incorporate the Convention on Migrant Workers or to adopt a domestic workers protection law is of additional concern given the vulnerability of these workers — many of them women who provide crucial long-term services to the elderly and disabled — to adverse, discriminatory measures related to the pandemic. Their precariousness is further underlined by their low pay, lack of union representation, and the subordination of their bargaining power to the interests of the governments of their home countries because of Taiwan’s reliance on a Philippines-style labor-export model.