May 28-June 3
China
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) released its findings on China following a review in May. The committee included an 18-page list of areas of concern across a wide array of issues related to women’s rights, including reports of intimidation and harassment against women human rights defenders and sexual and gender-based violence by the police and other officials.
The Supreme People’s Procuratorate released a white paper on juvenile prosecution and protection during 2020-2022. The paper reported declines in drug crimes, on-campus bullying, and violent crimes by juveniles but an increase in the number of juveniles suspected of offering assistance to telecom and online crimes. It said the overall numbers of juveniles arrested and prosecuted increased, as did the proportion of young juveniles - those between the ages of 12 and 14. Arrests and prosecutions of persons suspected of sexually assaulting children also increased.
A local county vice-police chief and two auxiliary officers were detained for periods ranging from 15-20 days for their role in a violent assault on a reporter in Guizhou Province. The reporter was investigating the drowning of two middle school teachers in a flash flood after a local hydroelectric power plant discharged water. After an outcry on the Chinese internet, municipal officials announced the punishments. They said the deputy police chief would be reassigned to a non-police job and the two auxiliary officers were fired.
Hong Kong
The Court of First Instance rejected former Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai’s effort to halt his national security trial. His lawyer, Robert Pang, argued that the government’s action in preventing Lai from being represented by a British lawyer amounted to “persecution not prosecution” and that the selection of judges in national security cases is non-transparent. The panel of judges said that Lai “can and will receive a fair trial.”
At the start of a trial over the storming of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council complex on July 1, 2019, seven of 14 defendants pleaded guilty. The prosecution said that repairing the damage caused by protesters cost more than HK$36 million (US$4.6 million). The storming was part of months-long protests against a proposed extradition bill that would have allowed suspects to be transferred to mainland China.
Japan
The Lower House approved revisions to the sexual offenses portion of the Penal Code, including raising the age of sexual consent from 13 to 16, removing the requirement of physical violence or coercion for offenses such as rape, and criminalizing secretly taking photographs or video of a person’s sexual anatomy. Sexual intercourse will be considered non-consensual if the perpetrators use violence, intimidation, alcohol, drugs, or economic or social status to gain consent. The statute of limitations for prosecution for non-consensual intercourse will be extended to 15 years from 10 years. The revisions now go to the upper house for a vote.
The Nagoya District Court ruled that Japan’s failure to allow same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. It is the fourth district courts to rule on the question, and the second (after Sapporo, in 2021) to rule in favor of same-sex marriage being allowed. The court rejected the plaintiff’s request that the government compensate them for the unequal treatment. A new law would have to be passed before same-sex marriages could actually take place.
The Sendai High Court rejected an appeal for damages by two women who were sterilized under a now-defunct eugenics protection law, upholding a lower court decision that noted the 20-year statute of limitations. However, since February 2022, four other courts have awarded damages for forced sterilization.
Koreas
The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission launched an investigation into allegations that children of senior officials at the National Election Commission were employed through favoritism. The commissions’ secretary general and his deputy offered to resign while maintaining they did nothing wrong.
Legislators of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) asked the Constitutional Court to block a vote on pro-labor changes to the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act. Opposition parties sent the proposed revisions directly to a plenary session of the National Assembly without the completion of deliberations at the PPP-controlled Judiciary Cmmittee, which sat on the bill for nearly 90 days.
The National Assembly failed to override a presidential veto of a proposed Nursing Act that had triggered protests and strikes by both supporters and opponents. The bill would have improved nurses’ pay and working conditions and clarified the role and responsibilities of nurses. Doctors and nursing assistants said it would have allowed nurses to open clinics without doctors’ supervision.
Taiwan
The Legislative Yuan amended the Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法) so that convictions for three crimes - causing minor injury, ingesting Category 1 drugs, and possessing more than 20 grams of a Category 2 drug - cannot be appealed to the Supreme Court after a second-instance judgment is issued. The change is expected to reduce the court’s caseload by 500-600 cases per year.
President Tsai Ing-wen nominated Supreme Court Judge Tsai Tsai-chen (蔡彩貞), Control Yuan Secretary-General Chu Fu-mei (朱富美), National Taiwan University Law Professor Chen Chung-wu (陳忠五), and attorney Greg Yo (尤伯祥) to fill four upcoming grand justice vacancies on the Constitutional Court. If confirmed by the Legislative Yuan, the four will replace departing Grand Justices Huang Hung-hsia (黃虹霞), Wu Chen-han (吳陳鐶), Tsai Ming-cheng (蔡明誠), and Lin Chun-i (林俊益), whose eight-year terms end on September 30, 2023.
The Legislative Yuan passed amendments to the Fire Services Act (消防法) (significantly revising 27 articles), the Renewable Energy Development Act (再生能源發展條例) (requiring rooftop solar panels to be incorporated into new structures that meet specific conditions), and the Mining Act (礦業法) (giving indigenous communities more say regarding mining rights in their lands).