President Chen Shui-bian on May 10 met with Dr. Theodoor C. Van Boven, an international human rights expert from the Netherlands. President Chen, on behalf of the government and 23 million residents of the ROC (Taiwan), expressed a warm welcome and gratitude to Dr. Van Boven. He also shared Taiwan's work and accomplishments in the area of human rights in recent years with the visitor.
The president said that Dr. Van Boven has spent one month in Taiwan on this visit to carry out research on the course and experience of Taiwan in promoting human rights. The president said he hopes that Dr. Van Boven will provide suggestions regarding Taiwan's human rights development and the protection of human rights. President Chen said that his taking office seven years ago not only marked the first alternation of power among political parties on Taiwan, but more importantly gave him the opportunity to use his office to guarantee human rights for the people of Taiwan. Unfortunately, he said, opposition parties did not support related legislation he put forward. For instance, he said, a domestic version of the International Covenant on Human Rights was unable to be passed. The president also noted that other initiatives he supported, such as the establishment of the National Human Rights Commission and the National Human Rights Memorial Hall, also regrettably did not succeed. He said that dealt a significant blow to Taiwan's efforts to becoming a national based on human rights.
Nonetheless, the president expressed his pleasure that Taiwan has made progress in its work in recent year to guarantee human rights. President Chen said that according to rankings by the American non-profit organization Freedom House, Taiwan is considered a free country, just like the United States and Japan, in the areas of political rights and civil liberties. In addition, Taiwan was given a perfect score in freedom of expression and belief. In its global Freedom of the Press Survey released on May 1, Freedom House ranked Taiwan in 33rd place among 195 countries, a rise of two places from last year. In addition, Taiwan holds the top spot among all Asian nations. In comparison, China ranked 181st, down four positions from the previous year. China also continued to be listed as one of the world's not free nations in terms of freedom of the press. Meanwhile, Reporters without Borders, which carries out a survey on the degree of press freedom in countries worldwide, for the first time ranked Taiwan ahead of the United States and Japan. In addition, the current issue of Newsweek magazine also points out that Taiwan's citizens support free speech more strongly than those of any other surveyed country. The president said these results indicate that it is obvious to everyone how Taiwan has strived to improve and promote human rights.
The president also provided a detailed description on efforts that will be undertaken here to abolish the death penalty. He said that prior to formally abolishing capital punishment, Taiwan is exhibiting extreme caution and is trying its best not to hand out death sentences. The president added that a broad consensus in society has yet to be reached on abolishing capital punishment. Presently, he said, 80% of the public does not support the abolishment of the death penalty. However, if the abolishment of the death penalty is carried out in conjunction with longer prison terms and stricter thresholds for prisoners to receive parole, 40% of the public then would give the nod to abolishing capital punishment. President Chen said that prior to the abolishment of capital punishment, the law could be changed from "absolute capital punishment" to "relative capital punishment." He said that in 1998, 32 people were put to death on Taiwan, while in 2000, a year in which he had yet to serve a full year in his presidency, that number dropped sharply to 17 people. In subsequent years, the number of people put to death has continued to decline, with the death penalty not exercised on anyone last year. He said that he hopes that a consensus can be forged among the public here and that related measures can be passed prior to the actual abolishment of the death penalty. The president also said he hopes that in the future wording will be added to the Constitution that forbids capital punishment.
Dr. Van Boven thanked President Chen for taking time out of his busy schedule to meet with him. He also shared with the president experiences and observations during his month-long stay here.