-------- Original Message --------
| Subject: | Inquiry of concern |
|---|---|
| Date: | Thu, 18 Jan 2007 00:43:27 -0800 |
| From: | Richard <rdca25@yahoo.com> |
| To: | hrwdc@hrw.org |
18 January 2007
Dear Human Rights Watch,
Does a blatant discriminatory policy at a university fall within the area of your concerns? I recognize there are critical issues you are confronted with every day. Still this issue might be of concern on several levels.
Although I won an appeal of a dismissal at a Taiwan university in 2001, my university refused to comply with the ruling for more than two years. Only after repeated warning letters from Taiwan's Ministry of Education did the university comply. But that was only after the university contested the Ministry ruling in court on the basis that foreigners have no right to appeal. When the court rejected this claim, the university reinstated me but promptly imposed penalties against me, in defiance of the Ministry ruling of 2001 that favored me.
The main point, however, is not what the university did but what the Ministry of Education has not done: It has not penalized a single official involved in this case. Yet the university lawyer went to court saying in plain language that foreigners are not protected by human rights laws (the right to appeal). This is despite the fact that the university itself held appeal hearings on the case and then participated in appeal hearings at the Ministry level. Only after the university lost the Ministry appeal did it claim in court the appellant had no right to appeal in the first place!
We're talking about blatant duplicity here, by a president of a national university in Taiwan (National Cheng Kung University in Tainan), one with sister universities in countries like England and the United States which insure the human rights of Taiwan citizens when they reside, matriculate, or teach in those countries.
Yet this university president not only has not been punished by the Ministry of Education but was allowed a second three-year term as president following his noncompliance with the Ministry ruling!
Even more troubling is the apparent indifference of univeristy faculty, despite obvious human rights violations and the serious human rights principles involved; namely the right of foreign professors to be treated equally under the law and the necessity of compliance under the law if a university is to maintain its credibility.
Despite the 2001 Ministry ruling in my favor, the university held about fifteen subsequent hearings, in effect to decide whether it would enforce or even acknowledge the legitimacy of the Ministry ruling.
Worse, there's no redress here. The only solid victory I've won so far is that the court disallowed the university's claim that foreign teachers were not protected by Taiwan's Teacher's Law (allowing my right to appeal). But the legal principle of estoppel should have prevented the university court action in the first place, or at least expedited its judicial disposition, with penalties.
But what I got after many months of judicial hearings (court sessions are intermittent in Taiwan, sometimes arranged every month or every other month or so) was what was my due based on the original Ministry ruling of 2001! And the university continues to appeal my right to back pay, compensation, etc.
We're talking here about willful and malicious noncompliance with the law (the Ministry ruling of 2001) and yet no official has been punished; years later several court cases are still pending; the university faculty has been silent or complicitous; and no English-language newspaper or human rights group is interested in the case or issues related to the case!
Isn't there something Human Rights Watch can do about this case? Several serious issues are involved here:
First, a university in a democratic country has publicly claimed foreigners (specifically, Americans) have no right to appeal.
Second, it did so even after fully participating in an appeal process, never claiming foreigners had no right to appeal until it lost. This is blatant duplicty on the part of a Taiwan university. (The issue of academic integrity should be of concern too.)
Third, this university has sister colleges in democracies that protect Taiwan citizens equally under the law and do not engage in similar duplicitous practices, to my knowledge.
Fourth, not a single official has been punished for this misconduct.
Fifth, the long protracted legal process of defending one's rights in Taiwan will doubtless discourage other foreign faculty from exercising their rights in Taiwan and has probably discouaraged some already.
Clearly there's a discrepancy between teachers' rights written down on paper and promulgated to other universities and the rights actually enforced. I am by no means the only case involved here, since I heard of similar cases.
The Ministry of Education in Taiwan seems to be playing both sides of the fence: proclaiming rights but not enforcing them, except belatedly. This is a good international public relations policy (academic exchanges, etc.) but is unfair to professors entangled in the web of duplicity that universities spin without risk or cost to themselves (their lawyers are on the annual payroll anyway).
How many faculty are going to wait two years for enforcement? Even then, I am still waiting for appropriate compensation or even a formal apology. One cocky university administrator even told me, "If we had done something wrong, the Ministry of Education would have punished us."
Clearly redress can only come from outside Taiwan, by exposure. Otherwise, how else to explain that the current university president has:
(1) Overlooked human rights abuses at his university;
(2) Defied a Ministry ruling that favored an appellant;
(3) Initiated, through his lawyer, a court action to contest that ruling, claiming foreigners had no right to appeal despite university appeal hearings and the administration's participation at Ministry appeal hearings in Taipei;
(4) When the court rejected the university's claim that foreigners had no right to appeal, the university president allowed what amounted to punitive "review" hearings against the professor, in defiance of the Ministry ruling in his favor.
Taiwan, I believe, has signed an international human rights charter. These abuses clearly violated human rights yet have gone unpunished by the Ministry of Education, encouraging further abuses and, moreover, discouraging attempts at due redress.
I believe these issues should concern all academics, based on principles of international law as well as reciprocity. The relative passivity or indifference of Taiwan faculty here should also concern the international community.
In addition, despite countless attempts to interest human rights groups and the press here, my efforts have been in vain. Only one Chinese-language daily, to my knowledge, printed something about the case that amounted to an exposure of sorts; while no English-language newspaper (including the China Post, Taiwan News, Taipei Times) to my knowledge, has printed anything about the case.
I would appreciate your concern in this matter. If you wish further information or a contact number of sympathetic Taiwan faculty, please inform me.
Sincerely,
Richard de Canio
Associate Professor
Department of Foreign Languages and Literature
National Cheng Kung University
Tainan, Taiwan
ROC
(06) 237 8626
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