Taiwan is a multi-party democracy. The 2000 presidential victory of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Chen Shui-bian followed more than 50 years of rule by the Kuomintang (KMT) and marked the first transition from one political party to another in the Taiwanese history, reported by a Government Information Office (GIO) website as the "first ever in Chinese history". [1] This followed gradual democratic reforms since the 1980s and 1990s; most notably, martial law was lifted in 1987, and the Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion were repealed in 1991 for Republic of China Constitution to be effective in Taiwan. The human rights record in Taiwan is generally held to have experienced significant transformation since the 1990s.
The citizens in Taiwan can change their government through elections and are held to enjoy most basic rights, according to a 2004 Freedom House report. [2] Freedom House rates Taiwan as among the most "Free" nations in Asia, with a 1 in both Political Rights and Civil Liberties (scale of 1-7, with 1 being the highest). This represents a significant improvement, as the 1973 rating was 6.5, rising to 2.1 by 2000. For much of the history of the Kuomintang (KMT) regime in Taiwan, from the retreat from the mainland in 1949 until the 1970s and 1980s, the state was highly autocratic and varying degrees of repression of political and civil rights existed. The Legislative Yuan debated and ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on 31 March 2009. [3]
The human rights during the Japanese rule era experienced dramatic changes with three major phases. After the 1895 defeat of the Republic of Formosa, the Empire of Japan annexed Taiwan. The early Japanese administration appointed military governors. The colonial policies often limited the human rights of the Taiwanese people. After the Tapani incident in 1915 and Japan's involvement in World War I, the colonial governance was gradually liberalized. Taiwan became an extension of the Japanese Home Islands and the Taiwanese people were educated under a policy of assimilation.
The last phase of Japanese rule began with the eruption of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. As the Japanese became active in international military affairs, its militarism rose. Its goal now was to fully Japanize Taiwan. In the meantime, laws were made to grant Taiwanese membership in the Japanese Diet, which theoretically would qualify a Taiwanese to become the prime minister of Japan eventually.
Some of the autocracy in early Nationalist China also reflects a continuation of the political attitudes of Taiwan in the early decades after its founding in 1912. Many Chinese leaders, following the thought of Sun Yat-sen, held it necessary to maintain strong centralized control, including a militarized regime, during the early part of the regime's history, feeling that the populace was "not ready" for full democracy. Political repression was heavy during the early Kuomintang-Taiwan period in the mainland under Chiang Kai-shek, who would retreat to Taiwan following the Chinese Civil War.
Additionally, the history of Taiwan after 1945, in terms of political situation and human rights, displays multiple similarities with that of the Republic of Korea (South Korea). Between the end of World War II and the 1980s, a similar degree of autocracy and centralization existed, followed by eventual democratization by two states. Both Taiwan and South Korea went on to become leading economic players in Asia, part of the Asian Tigers, and both are now recognized as relatively free societies with successful human rights developments in most areas.
The Asian values debate, which holds that the political and cultural traditions of Asia justify a certain degree of autocratic rule to enable the rapid economic development of society puts Taiwanese human rights in interesting perspective. These ideas were prevalent among many important leaders in Malaysia, Singapore, and elsewhere with seemingly Western-style democratic Constitutions coupled with authoritarian one-party rule, in the 1990s. Moreover, some in mainland China, including Peking University scholar Pan Wei Bo, feel the most effective and appropriate political structure for the Chinese people is a relatively centralized state under rule of law, with some degree of popular consultation. There are also debates as to the government's right to police social behaviours. For instance, a municipal councillor suggested that Taiwan's low fertility rate could be alleviated by making employers penalise unmarried and childless workers; this suggestion was widely rebuked for its infringement of the rights of the individual. [4]
Capital punishment exists in Taiwan. National police and security agencies are, however, under effective civilian control, although isolated reports of human rights abuse still surface occasionally. Taiwanese residents generally enjoyed a high standard of living and a relatively equitable income distribution. The government generally respected the human rights of citizens; however, there were problems in some areas. Instances of police abuse of persons in police custody, official corruption, violence and discrimination against women, child prostitution and abuse, and trafficking of women and children occurred.
In recent years, Taiwan's laws have focused on combating sexual discrimination, granting greater accommodation to conscientious objectors (Republic of China has obligatory national service), and upholding cultural and linguistic pluralism. [1] In 2001, the Ministry of Justice issued a draft version of the Basic Law On The Guarantees of Human Rights. [1] For significant periods of Taiwan's history, both before and after 1949, when the Republic of China lost control of mainland China while only maintaining control of Taiwan, linguistic and cultural rights for minorities or non-power holding groups were often repressed. For example, local dialects such as Taiwanese (or any other non-Mandarin spoken variants spoken by the Taiwanese) were restricted in the mass media to promote the use of Mandarin as the common language.
The labor movement in Taiwan began in the 1980s near the end of military rule. [5]
There are more than 700,000 guest workers in Taiwan. Most are from Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. A murky system of recruitment and brokerage agencies leaves foreign workers vulnerable to debt bondage. [6] Most foreign workers live in dorms either inside the factories they work at or on the grounds of these factories. These dorms have faced significant criticism for sub-standard conditions and overcrowding. Up to 30 workers may share a single room, though numbers of four to eight per room are more common. Undocumented workers often have particularly bad living conditions. Domestic workers are required by law to live with their employing family and can not live outside their home. Many caretakers for the elderly and disabled sleep in the same room as the person they are caring for and lack their own space entirely. Employers in both industrial and domestic setting are allowed to deduct the cost of housing, food, etc. from their employee's wages. [7]
In March 2020 a fire at a factory in Taichung killed three Vietnamese workers living in the onsite dormitory. This tragedy renewed calls from labor rights activists for the abolishment of onsite dorms for foreign workers. [8]
The 2020 Trafficking In Persons Report by the U.S. State Department classifies Taiwan as Tier 1, meaning that Taiwan meets the minimum standards for combating trafficking in persons. The report states that Taiwanese "[a]uthorities continued to demonstrate serious and sustained efforts during the reporting period," leading to the department to keep Taiwan at Tier 1. [9]
Taiwan's high seas fishing industry has bucked the trend of rapid improvement in human rights. [10] Official Taiwanese sources put the number of foreign workers aboard Taiwanese vessels at 26,000 but NGOs and US government agencies put the figure around 160,000. Foreign fishermen frequently report non-payment, long work hours, and verbal and physical abuse at the hands of their captains and officers, who are often Taiwanese. [6]
Between August 2018 and November 2019, the Environmental Justice Foundation interviewed 71 former Indonesian fishers who had previously worked on 62 Taiwanese vessels. Of these workers, 24% reported violent physical abuse, 92% reported having their wages withheld, and 82% reported working excessive overtime. [11] In addition, 8 vessels were reported harpooning dolphins to use as shark bait, half the vessels finned sharks and discarded the bodies, and 7 of the boats captured and killed false killer whales. [11]
The 2020 Trafficking In Persons Report reported that Taiwanese-flagged and -owned fishing vessels in Taiwan's Distant Water Fleet (DWF) are staffed by both documented and undocumented migrant workers from many countries, including Montenegro, Solomon Islands, Vietnam, Indonesia, China, and the Philippines. [9] The U.S. State Department also reports that current regulations still contain loopholes that can perpetuate debt bondage, such as allowing unlimited fees for recruitment and unspecified “reasonable service items.” [9] The Report also included that migrant fishermen "working on Taiwan-owned and -flagged fishing vessels experience non- or under-payment of wages, long working hours, physical abuse, lack of food or medical care, denial of sleep and substandard safety equipment, and poor living conditions while indebted to complex, multinational brokerage networks." [9] Migrant fishermen also report "senior crewmembers employ such coercive tactics as threats of physical violence, beatings, withholding of food and water, retention of identity documents, wage deductions, and non-contractual compulsory sharing of vessel operational costs to retain their labor." [9] These abuses are particularly prevalent in the DWF, with the vessels often stopping in remote islands and "mother ships", disabling transponders, fishing for years at a time, changing vessel names, and switching workers between vessels to evade law enforcement. [9]
Unlike any other industry in Taiwan. the distant waters fishing fleet is not within the jurisdiction of the labor ministry. It is instead regulated by the Fisheries Agency which also has a mandate to support the industry. This responsibility for championing both the industry and protecting labor has been characterized as a conflict of interest by Greenpeace. In 2017 the Taiwanese Government introduced the Act for Distant Water Fisheries which was intended to increase government control and oversight over Taiwan's approximately 2,000 distant water fishing vessels. In particular the act sought to safeguard the rights of foreign workers aboard the vessels. [6]
Taiwan requires vessels to have a vessel monitoring system and any vessels engaging in transshipments at sea must report their movements within a short period of time, often a few hours. [12] However, this information is not open to public inquiry and infractions are rarely reported or enforced. [13]
In 2016, Taiwan's Council of Agriculture announced the Act for Distant Water Fisheries. Article 1 states that "[t]his Act is enacted to ensure the conservation of marine fisheries resources, strengthen distant water fisheries management, curb illegal, unreported, and unregulated... fishing, and improve traceability of catches and fisheries products, so as to promote the sustainable operation of distant water fisheries." [14]
In 2019, the EU lifted its IUU "yellow card" designation for Taiwan, following increased efforts by the government to address IUU fishing and reform the industry. [15] A "red card" designation would have resulted in exports from Taiwan being banned in the EU market.
NOAA's 2021 Report to Congress on Improving International Fisheries Management cites Taiwanese vessels continuing to violate "conservation measures in the WCPFC, IATTC, and ICCAT convention areas in 2018, 2019, or 2020 and for failing to take appropriate corrective actions." [16]
In 2015, an Indonesian fisherman named Supriyanto died aboard the Taiwan-flagged Fu Tzu Chun under suspicious circumstances. The initial report by Taiwan's FA reported that he died of an infection. However, his body was thrown overboard, resurfacing in Taiwan, and fellow crew members corroborated that his death was due to the abuse by the captain and two crew members. [17]
In February 2019, eight foreign crew members were murdered by their officers aboard the Taiwan-flagged fishing vessel Wen Peng approximately 900 nautical miles off the south coast of Sri Lanka. Two were killed on the vessel and six were forced overboard, their bodies were never recovered. [6]
In June 2019, a 19-year-old Indonesian on board a Taiwanese fishing vessel died. A Fijian coroner ruled it due to a pulmonary edema. Fellow crew members corroborated that he received regular physical punishment in the head and neck, and only intervention from the crew prevented his body from being tossed overboard. [18]
Four fisheries observers have disappeared or died on Taiwanese-flagged or -owned fishing vessels, and the cases are still unsolved. [19]
Taiwan legalized same-sex marriage after a 2017 court ruling, becoming the first country in Asia to do so. [20]
In 2020 Taiwan denied a Filipino extradition request for a Filipino domestic worker wanted for criticizing President Rodrigo Duterte online. Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs which denied the request stated that she has the same right to freedom of speech while legally in Taiwan as any Taiwanese citizen. [21]
The Patagonian toothfish, also known as Chilean sea bass, mero, icefish, and Antarctic cod, is a species of notothen found in cold waters between depths of 45 and 3,850 m in the southern Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans and Southern Ocean on seamounts and continental shelves around most Subantarctic islands.
A migrant worker is a person who migrates within a home country or outside it to pursue work. Migrant workers usually do not have an intention to stay permanently in the country or region in which they work.
Japan is a constitutional monarchy. The Human Rights Scores Dataverse ranked Japan somewhere in the middle among G7 countries on its human rights performance, below Germany and Canada and above the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and the United States. The Fragile States Index ranked Japan second last in the G7 after the United States on its "Human Rights and Rule of Law" sub-indicator.
Human trafficking and the prostitution of children has been a significant issue in the Philippines, often controlled by organized crime syndicates. Human trafficking is a crime against humanity.
Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) is an issue around the world. Fishing industry observers believe IUU occurs in most fisheries, and accounts for up to 30% of total catches in some important fisheries.
Contemporary slavery, also sometimes known as modern slavery or neo-slavery, refers to institutional slavery that continues to occur in present-day society. Estimates of the number of enslaved people today range from around 38 million to 49.6 million, depending on the method used to form the estimate and the definition of slavery being used. The estimated number of enslaved people is debated, as there is no universally agreed definition of modern slavery; those in slavery are often difficult to identify, and adequate statistics are often not available.
Taiwan is primarily a destination for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation. It is also a source of women trafficked to Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Women and girls from the People's Republic of China (P.R.C.) and Southeast Asian countries are trafficked to Taiwan through fraudulent marriages, deceptive employment offers, and illegal smuggling for sexual exploitation and forced labor. Many trafficking victims are workers from rural areas of Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines, employed through recruitment agencies and brokers to perform low skilled work in Taiwan’s construction, fishing, and manufacturing industries, or to work as domestic servants. Such workers are often charged high job placement and service fees, up to $14,000, resulting in substantial debt that labor brokers or employers use as a tool for involuntary servitude. Many foreign workers remain vulnerable to trafficking because legal protections, oversight by authorities and enforcement efforts are inadequate.
According to the United States Department of State, "Thailand is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking." Thailand's relative prosperity attracts migrants from neighboring countries who flee conditions of poverty and, in the case of Burma, military repression. Significant illegal migration to Thailand presents traffickers with opportunities to coerce or defraud undocumented migrants into involuntary servitude or sexual exploitation. Police who investigated reaching high-profile authorities also received death threats in 2015.
China has one-fifth of the world's population and accounts for one-third of the world's reported fish production as well as two-thirds of the world's reported aquaculture production. It is also a major importer of seafood and the country's seafood market is estimated to grow to a market size worth US$53.5 Billion by 2027.
The coastline of the Russian Federation is the fourth longest in the world after the coastlines of Canada, Greenland, and Indonesia. The Russian fishing industry has an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of 7.6 million km2 including access to twelve seas in three oceans, together with the landlocked Caspian Sea and more than two million rivers.
The Government of the Republic of Korea does not meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. The government continues to make improvements but South Korea has been lowered to Tier 2. The government demonstrated serious and sustained efforts by identifying and providing services to a comparable number of victims relative to the previous reporting period, increasing inspections of entertainment businesses, and increasing efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts. Although the government meets the minimum standards, it did not adequately address labor trafficking; the government investigated and prosecuted fewer cases, and penalized and deported trafficking victims due to inadequate identification efforts.
Thai Union Group is a Thailand-based producer of seafood-based food products. It was founded in 1977, and was listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) on 22 November 1994.
Human trafficking is a major and complex societal issue in Myanmar, which is both a source and destination for human trafficking. Both major forms of human trafficking, namely forced labor and forced prostitution, are common in the country, affecting men, women, and children. Myanmar's systemic political and economic problems have made the Burmese people particularly vulnerable to trafficking. Men, women, and children who migrate abroad to Thailand, Malaysia, China, Bangladesh, India, and South Korea for work are often trafficked into conditions of forced or bonded labor or commercial sexual exploitation. Economic conditions within Myanmar have led to the increased legal and illegal migration of citizens regionally and internationally, often to destinations as far from Myanmar as the Middle East. As of July 2022, Myanmar remained on the lowest tier of countries in the Trafficking in Persons Report. The border regions of Myanmar, including Shwe Kokko, are known human trafficking destinations.
Human trafficking in Southeast Asia has long been a problem for the area and is still prevalent today. It has been observed that as economies continue to grow, the demand for labor is at an all-time high in the industrial sector and the sex tourism sector. A mix of impoverished individuals and the desire for more wealth creates an environment for human traffickers to benefit in the Southeast Asia region. Many nations within the region have taken preventive measures to end human trafficking within their borders and punish traffickers operating there.
Crime in Taiwan ranges from food adulteration, bombing, assassination attempts, hostage crisis, murder etc. However, crime statistics show that crime rates in Taiwan are among the lowest in the world, and are relatively low compared to much of the developed world. A 2020 report named Taiwan the second-safest country in the world, based on low crime rates and a high number of survey respondents who indicated that they felt safe walking alone at night.
Transshipment or transhipment at sea is done by transferring goods such as cargo, personnel, and equipment from one ship to another. It is a common practice in global fisheries and typically takes place between smaller fishing vessels and large specialized refrigerated transport vessels, also referred to as “reefers” that onload catch and deliver supplies if necessary.
The maritime industries of Taiwan are a large part of Taiwan's economy. Industries of particular importance are shipbuilding, boat building, maritime transport, aquaculture, mariculture, commercial fishing, seafood processing, offshore wind power and various forms of tourism. Deep sea mining, especially of dormant hydrothermal vents, is also being considered for the future. In 2018 Taiwan was the fourth largest yacht building nation. Taiwan is home to a number of maritime museums and maritime colleges.
The fishing industry in Thailand, in accordance with usage by The World Bank, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and other multinational bodies, refers to and encompasses recreational fishing, aquaculture, and wild fisheries both onshore and offshore.
Fisheries crime describes the wide range of criminal activity that is common along the entire value chain of the fishing sector. It often occurs in conjunction with Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU), but next to illegal fish extraction include for example corruption, document fraud, tax evasion, money laundering, kidnapping, human trafficking and drug trafficking. The issue recently received increased attention in the UN, Interpol, and several other international bodies.
The China National Fisheries Corporation (CNFC) is a Chinese state owned enterprise which operates fisheries related businesses.
