Press Release | "When Human Rights Conventions Fail to Pass, When Will Police Violence End?" Press Conference
Last edited: 2026-07-27
In recent times, inappropriate enforcement and violent incidents by Taiwanese police have occurred endlessly. In February of this year, officers from the Wuling Police Station collectively tortured a teenager passing by the station without any concrete evidence. In the same month, at a police station in Pingtung County, several officers reportedly beat a suspect during enforcement, allegedly leading to their death.
Looking back at widely known incidents in recent years, a teenager in Changhua was suddenly grabbed by plainclothes police simply because his appearance was mistaken for an escaped migrant worker, resulting in injuries requiring 17 stitches (July 2023). Sanchong police mistook a citizen for a wanted fugitive, beating him and even spraying him with pepper spray (September 2022). Chungli police illegally stopped and questioned a music teacher, putting her in a martial arts takedown hold and handcuffing her (April 2021). Kaohsiung Prison guards led prison trusties in abusing an inmate, beating him to death (October 2019). [For details, see the "Chronology of State Violence in Taiwan" at the end of the text.] All these raise the question: in Taiwan, which prides itself on being a state governed by rule of law, why do acts of torture that should have become history continue to occur?
To this end, civil society organizations launched this press conference and march action, inviting legislators from various parties to attend to jointly express their emphasis on human rights protection and put forward the following four demands:
1. The Executive Yuan should promptly submit the draft Enforcement Act of the Convention against Torture to the Legislative Yuan for deliberation.
2. The three major parties in Congress should support the swift passage of the Enforcement Act of the Convention against Torture and propose amendment drafts for this Act.
3. The National Human Rights Commission of the Control Yuan should systematically review the enforcement status of our country's police to prevent similar incidents from happening again.
4. The National Police Agency should establish the "Police Special Project and Performance Management Committee" in accordance with the resolution of the 2017 National Customs on Judicial Reform, and thoroughly review the police performance system.
1. The Executive Yuan should promptly submit the draft Enforcement Act of the Convention against Torture to the Legislative Yuan for deliberation.
Although the Executive Yuan completed the draft Enforcement Act of the Convention against Torture in 2018 and submitted it to the Legislative Yuan for deliberation, it failed to pass the third reading in the Legislative Yuan and came to nothing.
During the 2024 presidential and legislative elections, our Association proposed the "Seven Questions on Judicial Reform" to all political parties, which asked whether they supported swiftly passing the Enforcement Act of the Convention against Torture within one year of taking office. In response, the Democratic Progressive Party clearly promised to promptly promote and pass this Act.
In this regard, we highly expect Premier Ch'en Chien-jen to also submit the draft Enforcement Act of the Convention against Torture as soon as possible during his remaining term, so as to improve our country's human rights protection and align with the international community.
2. The three major parties in Congress should support the swift passage of the Enforcement Act of the Convention against Torture and propose amendment drafts for this Act.
In addition to the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, the Kuomintang and the Taiwan People's Party also promised in the "Seven Questions on Judicial Reform" proposed by our Association to pass the Enforcement Act of the Convention against Torture. In this regard, we call upon all party caucuses in the Legislative Yuan to squarely face the problem that the issue of torture still exists in contemporary Taiwanese society, actively support the passage of the Enforcement Act of the Convention against Torture, and promptly propose drafts of the Enforcement Act of the Convention against Torture from their respective parties to facilitate the deliberation of this Act.
3. The National Human Rights Commission of the Control Yuan should systematically review the enforcement status of our country's police to prevent similar incidents from happening again.
Article 2, Subparagraph 1 of the Organic Act of the National Human Rights Commission of the Control Yuan stipulates: "The functions and powers of this Commission are as follows: 1. To investigate, according to its official powers or upon petition, events involving torture, human rights violations, or constituting various forms of discrimination, and to handle and grant relief in accordance with the law."
In addition to addressing individual incidents, we also expect the National Human Rights Commission to conduct a comprehensive and systematic investigation and review of the current overall police enforcement situation, so as to prevent incidents of police abuse of power and violent enforcement from happening again.
4. The National Police Agency should establish the "Police Special Project and Performance Management Committee" in accordance with the resolution of the 2017 National Customs on Judicial Reform, and thoroughly review the police performance system.
For many years, the unscientific and unreasonable performance requirements of our country's police system have not only left frontline grassroots officers exhausted, but have even led to situations where they take risks and enforce the law through illegal means.
To solve related problems, Resolution No. 69-2 of the 2017 National Customs on Judicial Reform required the establishment of a "Police Special Project and Performance Management Committee" under the Ministry of the Interior, and that members should be composed of more than half external members to construct a reasonable performance system (including publicizing the calculation standards, calculation methods, and reasons for performance evaluation items). However, on December 20, 2017, the National Police Agency vetoed the aforementioned resolution, once again evading the grassroots' review of the performance system and the convention mechanism's opportunity to supervise state public power.
We believe that the recent frequent chaos in law enforcement, worsening officer pressure, and workload deterioration further highlight the problems of the police performance system and the importance of legalizing related principles. In this regard, we once again call upon the National Police Agency to establish the "Police Special Project and Performance Management Committee" in accordance with the resolution and thoroughly review the police performance system.
Torture is not history. Completely eradicating torture requires systemic institutional reform, monitoring and tracking, and the implementation of education. Only by passing the Enforcement Act of the Convention against Torture can the state be assigned basic obligations in protecting human rights and bring about systematic changes in resources and measures.
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| 2024-02 | Case of a 17-year-old teenager collectively tortured and coerced into confession by police officers |
| 2024-02 | Incident where Pingtung County Police Bureau officers allegedly beat a suspect to death |
| 2023-07 | Teenager mistakenly grabbed by police resulting in 17 stitches "left cheek cut open like by a sharp blade" |
| 2023-05 | Taiwanese version of Hulk brutally beaten by police |
| 2023-04 | North Prison inmate abuse case |
| 2022-09 | Sanchong police mistakenly identify and beat a citizen and spray pepper spray |
| 2021-04 | Chungli police subdue and handcuff a music teacher in the street |
| 2020-04 | Zhonghe police kick head, pull hair, and yell at citizen "treat you to a bullet" |
| 2019-10 | Kaohsiung Prison guards lead trusties in prisoner abuse, beating to death |
| 2017-08 | Migrant worker Nguyen Quoc Phi shot dead with 9 bullets |
| 2014-12 | Miaoli Tai'an Indigenous person Lin Wei-hsiao suspected of being abused to death in North Prison |
| 2014-03 | Executive Yuan violent dispersal incident |
| 2002-01 | Cheng Hsing-tse case |
| 1996-09 | Chiang Kuo-ching case |
| 1991 | Su Chien-ho case |
| 1988 | Chiou Ho-shun case |
| 1986 | Su Ping-k'un and Kuo Chung-hsiung case |