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Poll shows pessimism about nation¡¦s
rights and freedoms
HUMAN RIGHTS:Respondents to the survey gave Taiwan¡¦s
developments in personal freedom and the right to legal protection the lowest
rating, dropping from last year
By Flora Wang / Staff Reporter
Taiwanese are generally pessimistic about the state of human rights in Taiwan, a
survey showed yesterday.
The survey, conducted by Shih Hsin University on behalf of the Taiwan Foundation
for Democracy (TFD), polled 1,082 people between Aug. 31 and Sept. 8. Asked to
situate overall human rights developments on a scale of one to five, respondents
gave the nation 2.82 points, or 56 on a scale of zero to 100.
Respondents gave democracy and freedom 3.11 points on a scale of one to five and
62 points on a scale of zero to 100.
In terms of developments of democracy and freedom in Taiwan, the results
represented a 0.15 percentage point decrease from last year.
Among the five different categories of rights and freedoms, freedom of speech
and religion enjoyed the best scores, with 3.42 points ¡X a minor improvement
from last year, the survey said.
However, on the right to join elections and elect public officials, the results
suffered a minor setback, with a score of 3.13 points, down from 3.22 last year.
Developments in personal freedom and the right to legal protection received the
worst rating, at 2.73 points, from 3.48 points last year, the survey showed.
Respondents gave a score of 2.06 points on the impartiality of judges, 2.01
points on the independence of the judiciary and 2.53 points on the legitimacy of
prosecutors¡¦ evidence gathering and indictment.
On the degree of freedom, the nation scored 28.37 out of 40 in terms of
political rights and 43.03 out of 60 in terms of civil rights, the survey said.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (¤ýª÷¥), who doubles as chairman of the TFD,
told a press conference at the legislature that the nation¡¦s democracy and
freedom had reached a certain standard, but ¡§we still need to make
improvements.¡¨
Judicial Reform Foundation director Lin Feng-jeng (ªL®p¥¿), who participated in the
conference, said the public¡¦s impressions of the judiciary must have been
affected by a recent series of light sentences for sexual offenders and a number
of corruption cases against judges.
Lin called on the legislature and the Judicial Yuan to establish an exit
mechanism allowing for the dismissal of incompetent prosecutors and judges by
pushing through the long-stalled draft judges¡¦ act.
¡§The nation¡¦s judiciary remains conservative when it comes to evaluating the
system. However, if we do not establish such an exit mechanism, the impartiality
of our judiciary will remain in question,¡¨ Lin said.
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