1.The important change of human rights protection by legislation
In order to promote the protection of our nation’s human rights and align them with international standards, the Legislative Yuan (Parliament) passed the “International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights” and the “International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights”, and passed the law for implementation of the two covenants on March 31, 2009. President Ma Ying-jeou authorized the two covenants on May 14, 2009. Therefore, the protection of human rights has become fundamental work for all levels of our government organizations from now on.
The Control Yuan is tasked with the mission of protecting human rights by nature. According to the statistics of people’s complaints after investigation, more than 80% of the complaints are related to human rights issues. To coordinate with the new development of human rights, the Control Yuan members made efforts to exercise their powers to inspect whether the conduct or policy of the government organizations are guilty of violating human rights standards listed by the two covenants. In addition, the Control Yuan held the 2nd Human Rights Protection Seminar on the topic of judicial rights aiming at advocating justice and appropriate rights of criminal suspects in custody on July 10, 2009.
2.Statistics on exercising control powers
Statistics on exercising control powers was rising up sharply comparing with the figures in the past after the inauguration of the 4th Control Yuan members in August 2008. From August 2008 to September 2009, the Control Yuan received 33,507 complaints and investigated 767 cases. After investigation, those cases involved in dereliction of duty and violation of law, the Control Yuan approved 37 impeachment cases against 58 officials and 1 censure case against 1 agency and 2 officials. The Control Yuan also proposed 192 cases of corrective measures to the Executive Yuan and its subordinate agencies for improvement in total 321 agencies (some agencies have been corrected more than once). The top three categories of investigations and corrective measures are with regard to economic affairs, transportations and national defense.
3.International activities made in the period
International activities participated by the Control Yuan during the period between January and September 2009 are tabled as follows:
(1) Conferences attended and visits made in the period
Conference(visit) / Place / Date
Office of the Ombudsman of Thailand / Bangkok, Chiangmai(Thailand) / 22-26 May 2009
9th World Conference of International Ombudsman Institute (IOI) / Stockholm(Sweden) / 6-17 June 2009
Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) of Singapore / Singapore / 25-29 June 2009
(2) International guests received in the period
Distinguished Guest / Country / Date
Mr. Mats Melin, Swedish Chief Parliamentary Ombudsman / Sweden / 9-13 February 2009
Delegates to the 2nd East Asian Human Rights Forum 2009 / East Asia / 13 May 2009
Professor Jerome A. Cohen, US-Asia Law Institute, New York University / USA / 14 September 2009