50th Anniversary of the Adoption of the ICCPR and ICESCR - Part 4 | WPN World People News

Finding the truth is crucial for human right protection

Chung-Mo Cheng, Former Grand Justice of the Constitutional Court and Vice President of the Judicial Yuan, acted as the host.

Finding the truth is crucial for human right protection! Mr. Chung-Mo Cheng, Former Grand Justice of the Constitutional Court and Vice President of the Judicial Yuan, pointed out there could be five ways to find truths; one is the truth naturally revealed by the accumulation of experiences; the second is the truth as a result of a legal proceeding; the third is from media coverage; the fourth is the truth determined by a prosecutor’s investigation; the fifth is the truth from a judge’s verdict. If 80 to 90 % of the people trust the justice system, the truths decided by the fourth way and the fifth way become trustworthy. Regretfully, nowadays, most people do not trust the justice system.

Recently the Ding-Hsin Contaminated Oil Case has caused tremendous amount of complaints and arguments in the general public; and also becomes scholars’ and experts’ most concerned subjects. Zhi-Long Chen said the food safety and regulation laws instituted by the Legislature Yuan have turned out to be the protective umbrella for profiteering enterprises. This is no human rights. He thinks that the threat to food safety has become equally scary as terrorists’ attacks. But the Legislature Yuan keeps making biased laws and regulations, leaving citizens suffered helplessly.

Yin-Hua Hong took the Zhi-Zhong Chen Case as an example. According to the Criminal Law, by serving his sentence with social service, Zhi-Zhong Chen should have been entitled to hold his official post. However, the Executive Yuan disregarded the original spirit of the law as to order Cheng’s dismiss. This is not only very regretful but also harmful to the advances of human rights.

Chun-Chieh Huang pointed out that a nation of laws and orders is a nation of justice. Procedural justice is valued by all nations of laws and orders. The enforcement of laws must also obey proper lawful procedures, so that the true value of justice can be actively practiced. Also, proper procedures are the purpose of making laws. Any administrative act that disobeys proper procedures is illegal.

Human rights should be practiced everywhere regardless how small it might be. Zhi-Xiang Chen took his own experience as an example. When he is on duty in holiday, he told the judicial police to inform him and the clerk of the court immediately, so that he can open a court session to prevent the suspect from being held in custody for extended time. He said the first article of the German Basic Law rules that human dignity shall not be infringed. Respecting and protecting the people is the duty of the nation. Laws and regulations are to protect human rights. If the laws are unable to protect human rights, the administration, the legislation, and the justice all have to be reviewed and improved.

Dr. Wu Ching-Chin, the Chairman and Associate Professor of the Department of Law of the Aletheia University, took the New Taipei City Elementary School Nutrition Lunch Case as an example, in which several school principals were indicted for corruption. Wu pointed out, although the judge thought there were contradictions in the witness’ testimony, the judge still decided that the bribery was true and the amount of money involved in the bribery was not important. The judge even decided that an estimated average value be taken as the amount of money in the bribery. The judge’s decision was so surprisingly amazing.

Wu said, when a major criminal case happens, the law enforcement officers often choose to release information to the media in an attempt to create a public opinion for the case. When the public opinion becomes discretionary evidence, the judge’s competence will be questioned if the judge’s verdict is against the public opinion. When the justice system insists not on the principal of presumed innocence and the principal of evidence, but the principal of imprecise rules of thumbs, injustice case will be inevitable.