Seminar | The Unnecessary Evil: "Torture, Ill-Treatment, and Life Imprisonment" ─ Seminar on State Obligations
Last edited: 2026-08-24
- The right of everyone to be free from torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment is one of the most fundamental human rights. However, the government has repeatedly failed to enact the draft Enforcement Act of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and Its Optional Protocol. As a result, the government continues to harbor misconceptions regarding torture and ill-treatment and remains unable to fully discharge the corresponding obligations of the state.
- One of the state's obligations under the prohibition of torture is to criminalize acts of torture. Although international experts have repeatedly urged the government, in the concluding observations of successive reviews of the Two Covenants, to establish the crime of torture, the Ministry of Justice has failed to respond adequately and has yet to publish its draft amendments.
- On the other hand, the Ministry of Justice plans to initiate amendments that would "expressly provide that persons convicted of intentional homicide, attempted homicide, or child abuse resulting in death or serious injury (offenses under Paragraph 6 or Paragraph 7 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of China) and sentenced to life imprisonment or fixed-term imprisonment exceeding 10 years shall not be eligible for parole." It also plans to provide that the period of detention served by death-row prisoners awaiting execution shall neither be credited against the sentence nor counted toward the "period already served" requirement for parole eligibility.
- The Ministry of Justice has a flawed understanding of the right of everyone to be free from torture and ill-treatment, resulting in a failure to fulfill its duties and an abuse of governmental power. This warrants our vigilance and demands the strictest public oversight.
Time
Saturday, November 22, 2025, 13:00–17:00
Location
Room 1301, Tsai Lecture Hall (Lin-tze Hall), National Taiwan University
Agenda
| Time | Topic | Chair | Speaker / Discussant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13:00–13:10 | Opening Remarks | Hsu Wei-chun (Convener, Covenants Watch) | — |
| 13:10–14:00 | Torture and Ill-Treatment: State Obligations | Yibee Huang (CEO, Covenants Watch) | Speaker: Huang Sung-li (Director, Policy Center, Covenants Watch) Discussant: Yung-Cheng Kao (Member, Control Yuan) |
| 14:00–14:50 | Legislative Concept of the Crime of Torture | Chien Chien-Jung (Attorney; Former Judge) | Speaker: Hsu Wei-chun Discussant: Chih-Jen Hsueh (Professor, College of Law, National Taiwan University) |
| 14:50–15:10 | Break | — | — |
| 15:10–15:40 | Evaluation of the Ministry of Justice's Draft Amendments on "Excluding Long-Term and Life Imprisonment from Parole Eligibility" | Lee Ming-ju (Deputy Executive Director, Judicial Reform Foundation) | Speaker: Meng-Hua Chin (Professor, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University School of Law) |
| 15:40–16:30 | Roundtable Forum: Life Imprisonment Without Parole | Lin Hsin-yi (Executive Director, Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty) | Discussants: Lo Ping-cheng (Attorney; Chairperson, Taiwan Association for Innocence); Hao Po-wei (Counseling Psychologist); Chien Chien-Jung; Yung-Cheng Kao |
| 16:30–17:00 | The Unnecessary Evil: How to Eradicate It? | Hsu Wei-chun | — |
Organizers
Covenants Watch, Taiwan Association for Innocence, Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty, Judicial Reform Foundation
Contact Person
Huang Sung-li (Director, Policy Center, Covenants Watch)
Phone: 02-3393-1815
This article is an AI-generated translation of the original Chinese text. In the event of any discrepancy, the Chinese version shall prevail.