TAIWAN ‘MOVING TOWARD’ ABOLISHING DEATH PENALTY

June 21, 2016: The Ministry of Justice responded to EU calls to abolish capital punishment by saying that Taiwan’s justice system is moving toward that goal in the long term, adding that a high percentage of Taiwanese still favor the death penalty for certain crimes.
Taiwan, China, Japan and the US were among the nations criticized in the Council of the EU’s Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World in 2015, which was released on June 20.
Deputy Minister of Justice Chen Ming-tang said the ministry’s ultimate goal is to abolish capital punishment in Taiwan, “but current public surveys indicate that 82 percent of the people are against abolition of the death penalty.”
Chen said the ministry has undertaken four measures toward this long-term objective: ending legal requirements for “mandatory capital punishment” for certain crimes; taking steps for the judiciary to deliberate on “discretionary capital punishment”; handing out the death penalty with extreme prudence; and carrying out the death penalty with extreme prudence.
“We are currently reviewing and assessing this issue,” Chen said. “The ministry will take very careful approaches on handling this issue and carrying out the death penalty, before our nation has formally abolished it,” Chen said. (Sources: taipeitimes.com, 22/06/2016)