Political Party Response | Taiwan Green Party's Response to the Seven Questions on Judicial Reform

The Taiwan Green Party's response is as follows. Should there be any inadequacies, we cordially invite your critiques and guidance, and we will learn from them with an open mind:

1. To guarantee the voting rights of inmates, do political parties support establishing polling stations within correctional institutions and implementing absentee voting so that all inmates can vote within these facilities?

The Taiwan Green Party supports establishing polling stations and implementing absentee voting within correctional institutions. We believe that citizens' rights to political participation should be guaranteed, and we advocate for opening up "absentee voting"—meaning allowing domestic residents to cast ballots in elections without being present at their household registration district—to ensure that more people can participate in the electoral process.

First, we recommend implementing "absentee voting" for central-level elections, prioritizing its application to the following groups: election workers, on-duty military personnel and police officers, individuals working outside their household registration districts, students, those with medical conditions that impede mobility, and individuals serving prison sentences whose civil rights have not been forfeited. The special status and circumstances of these groups may make it difficult for them to return in person to their household registration districts to vote; therefore, opening absentee voting will help expand participation.

The scope of eligible recipients should be expanded to include those serving as election workers on polling day, military personnel on active duty, police officers performing duties, individuals working outside their household registration districts, students studying outside their household registration districts, individuals with medical conditions, disabilities, childbirth, or injuries that impede mobility, and individuals serving prison sentences whose civil rights have not been forfeited. However, the Taiwan Green Party explicitly excludes "overseas postal voting" for overseas Taiwanese and mainland Taishang to ensure the fairness of voting and the legitimacy of elections.

This proposition aims to promote broader political participation, enabling more individuals with special statuses or circumstances to effectively exercise their voting rights and fostering more comprehensive and equal political engagement. We hope this reform will inject more democratic elements into our electoral system, enabling every citizen to exercise their right to political participation.

2. To eradicate torture and establish a National Preventive Mechanism against torture, do political parties commit to supporting the passage of the Enforcement Act of the Convention against Torture in the Legislative Yuan within one year of taking office?

The Taiwan Green Party commits to actively supporting and facilitating the passage of the Enforcement Act of the Convention against Torture within one year of taking office.
Upholding the values and principles of the Global Greens Charter, the Taiwan Green Party firmly opposes torture, punishment, or any form of physical mutilation inflicted on individuals through traditional or religious practices. We advocate for bringing perpetrators of torture into judicial proceedings, holding them accountable for their actions, and subjecting them to a fair judicial trial.

To fulfill this commitment, should the Taiwan Green Party enter the Legislative Yuan, it will actively support and facilitate the passage of the Enforcement Act of the Convention against Torture within one year of taking office. Furthermore, we commit to domesticating all core United Nations human rights conventions that have not yet been domesticated.

This includes, but is not limited to, the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (ICMW) and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED). The enactment of these laws will help ensure that all residents in Taiwan enjoy basic human rights protections, regardless of their background or status.

We believe that such legal reforms not only align with the values of the Global Greens Charter but also help build a society that is more just, equal, and respectful of human rights. Through the enactment of these laws, the Green Party is dedicated to creating a more humane society governed by the rule of law, ensuring that every resident can live in an environment of dignity and safety.

3. To prevent data breaches of personal information collected and managed by state agencies, do political parties commit to supporting a comprehensive revision of the Personal Data Protection Act within one year of taking office? Regarding data breaches of personal information collected and managed by government agencies, should an independent external investigative unit be established to clarify the facts and establish comprehensive review and preventive mechanisms?

The Taiwan Green Party supports a comprehensive revision of the Personal Data Protection Act and commits to working toward this within the first year of taking office to better protect the privacy and security of personal data. We deeply recognize the interplay and competition among copyright, privacy, information security, and open data, and we value the balanced development of these issues to ensure a healthy information ecosystem in society.

To ensure the security of personal data collected and managed by government agencies, the Taiwan Green Party advocates for the establishment of an independent investigative unit for personal information protection. The mission of this unit will include clarifying potential data breach incidents while establishing review and preventive mechanisms to guard against future information security risks.

This proposition primarily concerns the lawful use and protection of personal data while emphasizing the government's responsibility in information management. By ensuring corresponding regulatory frameworks and supervisory mechanisms, the Taiwan Green Party hopes to build a safer and more transparent information environment, safeguard citizens' rights and interests, and promote a balanced development between government openness and personal data protection.

4. To build a clean government and protect whistleblowers, do political parties commit to supporting the passage of the Whistleblower Protection Act in the Legislative Yuan within one year of taking office? Do you support providing remedial measures for past whistleblowers who were unprotected?

To build a clean government and protect the rights of whistleblowers, the Taiwan Green Party will fully support the passage of the Whistleblower Protection Act within the first year of taking office. We believe that individuals who expose corrupt practices should receive appropriate legal protection to prevent them from suffering retaliation for bravely exposing misconduct.

We particularly emphasize that whistleblowers should not suffer retaliation—including but not limited to dismissal, demotion, or pay cuts—simply because they are subordinates or employees of the person being reported. The enactment of the Whistleblower Protection Act will ensure that whistleblowers receive adequate legal protection, encouraging more people to bravely expose misconduct and promoting social transparency and fairness.

At the same time, the Taiwan Green Party also supports providing remedial measures for past unprotected whistleblowers to redress situations where they suffered unfair treatment due to their whistleblowing activities. This commitment embodies our party's pledge to build a fair and transparent government and encourages active social participation to jointly forge a cleaner political environment.

5. To address the current lack of uniform standards and procedures in forensic science and to prevent wrongful convictions, do political parties support the prompt establishment of a "National Forensic Science Commission"?

The Taiwan Green Party deeply recognizes the importance of forensic science. To enhance the fairness and efficacy of the judicial system, we firmly support the prompt establishment of a "National Forensic Science Commission" to strengthen forensic science education for judicial personnel, promote the research and development of forensic technology, and expand the scope of forensic science services.

Behind this proposition is our expectation for the continuous advancement of the judicial system. We hope to resolve the existing lack of uniform standards and procedures, as well as the absence of a reliable statistical database, by establishing a professional forensic science institution. This will not only help elevate the forensic proficiency of judicial personnel but also effectively prevent wrongful convictions, providing citizens with fairer and more reliable judicial guarantees.

Whether scientific foundations and procedures are sufficiently rigorous affects the probability of miscarriages of justice and wrongful convictions. Through this reform, we hope to build a more solid and trustworthy judicial system, ensuring that the adjudication of every case is established on a more scientific foundation, thereby realizing judicial fairness and efficacy.

6. To address the issue of improper police law enforcement, reform police education, and enhance law enforcement efficacy and quality, do political parties support establishing a "Police Special Project and Performance Management Commission" to formulate reasonable and scientific performance evaluation systems?

The Taiwan Green Party supports establishing a "Police Special Project and Performance Management Commission" to formulate reasonable and scientific performance evaluation systems, which is crucial for ensuring the legality and fairness of police operations.

The existing performance system encourages police officers to investigate minor offenses to quickly meet quantitative targets and accumulate points. Consequently, they may be less willing to invest efforts into more time-consuming structural and organized crimes that involve the root causes of public safety issues; cases not listed for evaluation are even more likely to be overlooked, becoming hidden hazards.

The Taiwan Green Party believes that a "Police Special Project and Performance Management Commission" should be established (with external members comprising at least half of the committee, including frontline police representatives, human rights experts, and social science researchers). This management commission would formulate rules and performance principles, allowing units at all levels to establish special projects and performance measures based on these principles. If the management commission can make good use of technology to build a big data database to flexibly arrange duty specialties and set performance targets according to the professionalism and talents of individual police officers, it will prevent officers from being exhausted by performance evaluations. Formulating scientific and reasonable performance evaluation standards, in addition to evaluating police law enforcement performance, also addresses the risks police officers face while on duty. The establishment of the Police Special Project and Performance Management Commission will help ensure the transparency, professionalism, and appropriate placement of police law enforcement.

Furthermore, the Taiwan Green Party suggests establishing a separate unit with grievance review characteristics to allow those dissatisfied with performance calculation results to file grievances.

7. To systematically prevent and reduce judicial misconduct by judges and prosecutors, do political parties support amending the Judges Act to strengthen the supervisory responsibility of judicial heads over their subordinate judges or prosecutors?

The Taiwan Green Party agrees to amend the Judges Act to strengthen the top-down supervisory responsibility of judicial heads over subordinate judges while keeping official powers in check. In addition, stronger mechanisms should be established to leverage systems horizontally or bottom-up to prevent and reduce judicial misconduct by judges.

As for the supervision of prosecutors, amendments and implementation can be carried out according to practical needs after referencing the Court Organization Act and the Organizational Regulations of the Prosecutor Evaluation Commission. We advocate that the designs of both the Judges Evaluation Commission and the Prosecutor Evaluation Commission should place greater emphasis on representatives of scholars and impartial public figures other than judges, prosecutors, and attorneys, thereby breaking away from legal solipsism and ensuring the diversity and fairness of the mechanisms.