A Control Yuan joint committee, made up of members of the CY’s Committee on Domestic and Minority Affairs and Committee on Judicial and Prison Administration Affairs, headed to the Yilan Detention Center and Yilan Prison on an inspection visit April 23 and 24, 2018. A main aim of the visit was to gain a better understanding of the situation regarding compliance with the U.N. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT). The Yilan Detention Center is administered by the Ministry of Interior’s National Immigration Agency (NIA), while Yilan Prison is administered by the Agency of Corrections under the Ministry of Justice.
During their visit to the Yilan Detention Center, the CY members listened to a briefing by the NIA, after which they asked questions on a range of issues, including overdue detention and other statistics, counsel provided by the Legal Aid Foundation, UNCAT-related training program planning, immigrant naturalization review and approval, immigrant development foundation operations and target recipients, schooling of transnational students, and so on.
In addition to briefings, the Yilan District Court and Yilan District Prosecutors’ Office reported on their research on prevention of torture. After the report, the CY members made suggestions on a range of issues, including related to treatment of juvenile delinquents, secrecy of investigations, safety during inmate transfer, the use of security cams without violating human rights, treatment of transgender inmates, the separation of adults and juveniles, and emergency notification systems.
Acting as Taiwan’s National Preventive Mechanism in line with UNCAT to ensure the protection of people in detention through independent monitoring, the Control Yuan is responsible for regularly inspecting any facility under the government’s jurisdiction or control where detained persons could be deprived of their rights. The onsite inspection in late April gave the CY joint committee a better understanding of the current situation regarding detention practices in the country. The committee will continue with follow-up inspections to detention facilities to ensure that these practices are consistent with international standards and in compliance with UNCAT.