Taiwan: Release Wang Guang-Lu

Taiwan has tried to position itself as a champion of indigenous rights in recent years.

Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou cheers with the audience during National Day celebrations marking the 101st anniversary of the founding of the Republic of China, in front of the Presidential Office in Taipei, Taiwan, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012. Ma pledged greater efforts to fix the island’s economy, now limping along at about a 2 percent annual growth rate. (AP Photo/Wally Santana)

(LONDON) - President of the Republic of China (Taiwan)
Ma Ying-jeou
Office of the President
No. 122, Sec. 1, Chongqing S. Rd
Zhongzheng District
Taipei City 100
Taiwan (R.O.C)

Your Excellency,

I am William Nicholas Gomes, Human rights defender and Freelance journalist.

I would like to draw your attention to the following case.

Wang Guang-Lu (Tama Talum), a 56- year old man of the indigenous Bunun tribe of Taiwan, began a 3 and a half year prison sentence on December 15, 2015, as punishment for hunting. His 94-year-old mother had asked him to give her some game meat.

After hunting a small deer and a mountain goat for her, he was arrested, tried and convicted. His appeal to the charges of illegally carrying a weapon and illegally hunting protected wildlife was refused by Taiwan’s Supreme Court on October 29, 2015.

This is a humanitarian case, since he will no longer be able to take care of his mother, or his children, and is himself in poor health. A long prison sentence causes their family unnecessary hardship. It should be noted that both animal species hunted are considered to be of “least concern” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Hunting, fishing, and gathering have been integral parts of indigenous culture, ritual and identity to the Austronesian peoples of Taiwan for millennia.

In most tribes, hunting is an important coming-of-age ritual for young men. For men of all ages, it is an important spiritual practice of communication with the ancestors and mountain spirits. Since the Republic of China came to Taiwan in 1945, they have labeled these subsistence and ritual practices as savage and criminalized them.

Taiwan has in recent years tried to position itself as a champion of indigenous rights. The government has promised to take into consideration indigenous cultural practices when dealing with such legal cases, even establishing indigenous hearing chambers for such cases. The state, however, continues to violate the right of indigenous people to hunt.

International law on indigenous peoples supports the right of indigenous people to their traditions of hunting, fishing and gathering.

Article 20 of the United Nations Declarations on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples says that “Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and develop their political, economic and social systems or institutions, to be secure in the enjoyment of their own means of subsistence and development, and to engage freely in all their traditional and other economic activities.”

Article 19 of Taiwan’s own Basic Law on Indigenous Peoples states that indigenous persons may hunt, but only “for traditional culture, ritual or self-consumption.”

Taiwan’s Basic Law on Indigenous Peoples, passed in 2005, calls for all relevant laws to be revised to permit the implementation of indigenous rights as promised in the law. Yet, Taiwan continues to violate the inherent rights of its indigenous peoples.

As international supporters of indigenous hunting rights in Taiwan, I ask you to immediately file an extraordinary appeal to the Supreme Court on behalf of Wang Guang-Lu.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this pressing matter.

Yours sincerely,

William Nicholas Gomes

Human Rights Defender & Freelance Journalist

Note : 1. http://thracanada.blogspot.ca/2015/12/thrac-writes-letter-to-president-ma.html 2.https://www.change.org/p/prosecutor-general-yen-da-ho-taiwan-free-wang-guang-lu-and-legalize-indigenous-hunting-in-taiwan

Yours sincerely,

William Nicholas Gomes
Human Rights Defender & Freelance Journalist