For an English Joint Statement, please see below.

Covenants Watch & Taiwan International Medical Alliance

I am Yibee Huang representing Covenants Watch and Taiwan International Medical Alliance.

We have some recommendations for the IRC to consider regarding Articles 12 and 13:

1. We recommend the government start to prepare for a support framework to ensure the full enjoyment of legal capacity of persons with disabilities, including a supported decision-making law.

The government has done almost nothing regarding the 2017 concluding observations and recommendations on Article 12. The guardianship is still resorted to as a protection of the interest of persons with disabilities.

As the abolition of guardianship remains one of the biggest challenges, the government should start by introducing to society various aspects of a support framework: people need to understand how supported decision making can be done, what kinds of support are helpful, what laws need to be made, and what expertise needs to be developed. There are already good practices in other countries, such as independent advocate, personal ombudsperson, or assisted decision-making laws. Without these preparational steps the guardianship will be here to stay.

2. We urge the Judicial Yuan to seriously consider the recommendations listed in the “International Principles and Guidelines on Access to Justice for Persons with Disabilities” of 2020, and make necessary amendments to relevant domestic laws, most importantly the Criminal Procedure Code, and make regulations for reasonable accommodation and procedural accommodation in courts.

For example, it is necessary to have a full assessment whether to introduce the system of intermediary services for vulnerable parties and witnesses, to make recommendations to the court on users’ communication needs. At the meantime, the Judicial Yuan should draft regulations for all levels of court on the provision of reasonable accommodations and procedural accommodations, which lies in the discretion of the presiding judge. The Judicial Yuan should, through administrative means, support judges in making these accommodations.

3. The Judicial Yuan, the Ministry of Justice, bar associations and National Police Agency should develop comprehensive training programs and sensitize all the relevant professional and staff about disabilities.

It is important for everyone involved in every step from investigation, prosecution, trial, to correction, to understand the special needs of persons with disabilities.

For example, it is critical for prosecutors to understand that persons with mild intellectual disabilities may admit too easily allegations against them, or that they tend to dismiss the option of accompaniment of a defense lawyer during police interrogation.

It’s especially important for the Criminal courts to critically review the effects of disabilities on each step of the proceedings because starting next year the Citizen Judges are going to sit alongside professional judges in cases involving homicide. As victims and suspects are both more likely than the general population to be persons with disabilities, it is important that the criminal court has adequate understanding of different aspects of CRPD and share that knowledge with citizen judges.