President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has been promising to abolish the death penalty since 2000 and no executions were carried out last year, making it seem as if Taiwan could soon join the ranks of countries that do not advocate capital punishment. Neverthe-less, on Nov. 29 last year, Minister of Justice Morley Shih (施茂林) approved the execution of Chung Te-shu (鍾德樹), which has been delayed thanks to the efforts of the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty.

The alliance's lawyers had applied for two extraordinary appeals and two constitutional interpretations -- all of which failed -- while at the same time asking for a presidential pardon. It is, however, highly likely that Chung will soon be executed.

As the new year starts, the government will likely carry out the execution and break last year's record. Since the government has already decided against maintaining a zero record this year, chances are more executions will be carried out. This will further distance Taiwan from the ranks of countries that do not have capital punishment.

Given the government's announcement that it would push for the abolition of the death penalty, the justice ministry's decision in favor of an execution is contradictory and ironic, to say the least. The gap between the government's stated policy and its actual practice shows its inability to implement major policies. Our hope is that the government will remove current obstacles as soon as possible to meet its goal of abolishing the death penalty and complete all complementary legal regulations and measures.

Looking at the administra-tion's record over the past six years, what has the Chen government done to carry out its stated goal of abolishing capital punishment?

The only thing that has changed is the legislature has abolished mandatory death sentences, but capital punishment remains legal.

The abolition of mandatory death sentences was the result of a gradual process that had been going on since the lifting of martial law and cannot be considered a political achievement that can be credited to the Chen administration.

To date, the government has yet to implement any concrete reforms aimed at abolishing the death penalty.

As a result, prosecutors continue to demand and judges continue to issue the death sentence in certain criminal cases. In other words, Taiwan is still far from abolishing capital punishment.

In 2005, executions were carried out in 22 countries, including Taiwan. Taiwan is lumped together with China, which carries out about 80 percent of the world's executions. Despite a temporary zero execution record last year, Taiwan is about to rejoin the ranks of countries practicing capital punishment.

Taiwan's move toward abolishing capital punishment has been closely followed by the EU and international human rights organizations. Following Shih's decision last November to execute Chung, many European countries have expressed their concern to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Given Taiwan's diplomatic predicament, it is very important to promote substantial relations with powerful nations. The government's declaration that it would abolish the death penalty raised hopes that this could be a factor in strengthening diplomatic relations with the EU. The delayed implementation of the policy may now instead impair relations with the EU. Given the clear diplomatic implications of such a move, the government cannot afford to ignore this issue any longer.

Chiu Hei-yuan is a research fellow at the Institute of Sociology at Academia Sinica.

Translated by Lin Ya-ti