CALD Resolution No. 1 S. 2013

CALD Resolution No. 1 S. 2013

CALD resolution calling for the grant of medical parole to
Former Taiwanese President and Former CALD Chair
Chen Shui-bian

The Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD):

Noting the statement passed in the recently concluded CALD Conference on Challenges to Fundamental Freedoms which reiterates CALD’s enduring commitment to fundamental rights and liberties;

Regretting that the right against inhuman punishment and the right to adequate healthcare are not being observed in the case of former Taiwanese President and former CALD Chair Chen Shui-bian, who has been serving a prison term for more than four years now under “substandard and inhumane” conditions;

Recognizing that the former president is in poor health and is suffering from severe depression as attested by medical professionals;

Lamenting the fact that the government’s claim of providing the former president with the best living conditions and healthcare under the law was not supported by foreign officials and medical professionals who visited him; and

Highlighting the increasing popular clamor for the grant of medical parole as evidenced by the passage of resolutions supporting the move in seventeen (17) city and county councils in Taiwan.

Hereby:

Urges the government of President Ma Ying-jeou to go beyond partisan interests and immediately grant former President Chen a medical parole;

Supports the conclusion made by Joseph Lin in November 2012, leader of the US medical team which examined former President Chen, who said that the conditions under which the former president was being held constituted a “gross miscarriage of justice and human rights”;

Supports the appeal made in March 2013 by the International Group of Independent Experts on Human Rights to the Government of Taiwan that, on humanitarian grounds, it takes appropriate action in relation to the serious health problems of former President Chen;

Appeals that adequate and intensive medical care be given immediately to the former president by independent medical experts; and

Trusts that the grant of medical parole to Former President Chen would pave the way for genuine political reconciliation and maturation of Taiwanese democracy.

For the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats:

Sam Rainsy                                                                             J.R. Nereus Acosta
Chaiperson                                                                           Secretary General

Categorised in: Resolutions

This post was written by CALD