President Chen Shui-bian said that Taiwan will gradually...

President Chen Shui-bian said that Taiwan will gradually phase out capital punishment in line with its protection of human rights. Chen made the pledge at the opening of an international human rights symposium, jointly organized by the cabinet-level Research, Development and Evaluation Commission and the Taiwan New Century Foundation.
In his opening remarks, Chen said he has made human rights promotion one of his top policy goals when he assumed the presidency in May 2000. Over the past two-plus years, Chen said, Taiwan has made admirable achievements in human rights development.
With respect to the establishment of a legal mechanism, Chen said the Presidential Office has set up a human rights consultative panel and a cabinet-level human rights promotion task force has also been inaugurated. In addition, Chen said, the cabinet has sent a draft bill for the creation of a national human rights commission to the Legislative Yuan for deliberation.
The cabinet has also sent two UN-sponsored international human rights accords - the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights - to the legislature for ratification.Besides the formulation of all relevant legal mechanisms, Chen said, his administration has accelerated judicial reforms and will gradually phase out death sentence.