Tai Ji Men Case Discussed at IRF Summit 2022 in DC
Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) Jul 8, 2022 Updated Jul 8, 2022
WASHINGTON, July 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit 2022 took place on June 28-30 in Washington, D.C., with religious freedom advocates from around the world in attendance. Two breakout sessions at the summit addressed the Tai Ji Men case –a case of violations of religious freedom and human rights in Taiwan that has lasted for over 25 years.
The summit was chaired by former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback and Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett, president of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, bringing together global religious, political, and academic leaders, including Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Rashad Hussain, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, U.S. Congressman Chris Smith, U.S. Congressman French Hill, Member of Parliament of the UK Fiona Bruce, Member of Finnish Parliament Paivi Rasanen, as well as religious freedom defenders and victims of religious persecution. The event, attended by approximately 1,000 people, aimed to promote religious freedom and human rights protection around the world.
On June 30, the Action Alliance to Redress 1219 organized a breakout session under the theme of "The 2022 Review of Taiwan's Implementation of the Two UN Human Rights Covenants and the Tai Ji Men FORB Case.”
A film was presented at the beginning of the meeting, featuring the international review of Taiwan’s third national report on UN human rights covenants (the ICCPR and ICESCR) by nine international human rights experts in May 2022. The conclusion of the film represented the views of many scholars: “The two covenants have been in force in Taiwan for 13 years. However, they simply exist in name. Human rights are not being respected in government agencies. Over the years, the international reviewers' concluding observations and recommendations have not been taken seriously. The basic human rights guaranteed by the two covenants, such as freedom of religion, have yet to be implemented.”
Charlotte Lee, an attorney in Taiwan and a representative of the Action Alliance to Redress 1219, pointed out the violations of the two covenants in the Tai Ji Men case, such as the fact that Taiwan’s National Taxation Bureau issued ill-founded tax bills to Tai Ji Men and treated Tai Ji Men differently from other martial arts and religious groups, which violated the protection of equal rights and the principle of non-discriminatory treatment under Articles 2 and 26 of the ICCPR and Article 2 of the ICESCR. She also indicated other violations of the two covenants, including the prosecutor's investigation, which resulted in cruel treatment of the master and disciples of Tai Ji Men, a violation of Article 7 of the ICCPR.
Alessandro Amicarelli, president of the London-based European Federation for Freedom of Belief, visited Taiwan before and was invited to teach courses on human rights and religious freedom there. He praised Taiwan's incorporation of the two international covenants on human rights into Taiwan's domestic law in 2009. This is a very significant step towards full democracy in Taiwan, he said, adding that the final recommendations of the third review of the two covenants in May of this year failed to mention freedom of religion. He noted that since the Tai Ji Men case is still unresolved, he and other scholars and human rights activists would continue their efforts to urge the Taiwanese government to improve by organizing monthly seminars and publishing articles and books.
Dr. Donald Westbrook, a lecturer for the Library & Information Science Department at San Jose State University, USA, visited Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy in Los Angeles in February 2022, which allowed him to gain an even deeper understanding of the beliefs, practices, and community of this group. He stated, “I come to you today primarily as a religious studies scholar and teacher who is most disappointed about the ongoing injustice in Taiwan with respect to this case. I say this with respect to the tax case, certainly, but also in light of confiscated sacred land in Taiwan and the clear infringement on human rights and religious freedom.”
Regarding the protection of freedom of religion or belief, he stated, "But making this a lived (and legal) reality, needless to say, can be an entirely different manner, as others have already addressed in connection to Taiwan’s domestic implementation of two human rights covenants. In particular, the failure to adequately address freedom of religion or belief (FORB) and the rights of taxpayers is disappointing as much as it is perplexing."
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