通過「人民團體法部分條文修正案」

Taiwan makes it legal to advocate communism

(AFP) – 19 hours ago

TAIPEI — Taiwan's legislature has made it legal to advocate communism, changing a law that was a legacy of the island's long Cold War with the mainland, local media reported Saturday.

Lawmakers on Friday amended the Civil Associations Act, removing an article that had made it illegal for organisations to promote communism, the Liberty Times and other newspapers said.

The proposal to amend the law had come from a legislator of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, who had argued it was a violation of the right to freedom of expression and freedom of association.

The legal amendment is mainly of symbolic significance, as the ban on communist agitation has not been implemented with any particular vigour in recent years.

For example, in August 2008, the Taiwan Communist Party was allowed to register as the island's 141st political party.

However, in the first decades after Taiwan and China split at the end of a civil war in 1949, there were pronounced fears in Taipei that Beijing could be planning a fifth column on the island as preparation for an invasion.

This tension is now a thing of the past, and relations have improved radically in recent years, especially since 2008 when China-friendly politician Ma Ying-jeou was elected Taiwan's president.

人團法修正 刪除不得主張分裂國土

三讀通過 保障言論自由

〔記者施曉光／台北報導〕立法院院會昨天三讀通過「人民團體法部分條文修正案」，刪除不得主張共產主義或分裂國土的限制，上述主張也不得再做為不准人民團體設立或須予廢止的理由，讓人民政治主張，回歸言論自由範疇。

目前人民團體必須以行政區域為組織區域的限制，也被修正為原則性規範，並刪除強迫下級社會團體須加入上級團體為會員的規定，以符合人民結社自由及團體會務自主原則。

另外，為使長照體系更趨完善，院會也三讀通過「呼吸治療師法部分條文修正案」，增訂設立「居家呼吸照護所」的法源依據，未來呼吸治療師可以不必再依附於醫院，開設居家呼吸照護所執業，提供病患到宅居家照顧服務。

而 為符合大法官會議第六四四號解釋文，並落實「公民與政治權利國際公約」、「經濟社會文化權利國際公約」，立法院昨通過上述人團法修法。配合此二項公約施 行，地政士法、不動產估價師法中，同一區域只能有一個公會的限制，改為原則性規定；合作社法限制同一區域合作事業不能同時有二個聯合社的規定，也予刪除。

國民黨立委吳育昇強調，刪除不得主張共產主義或分裂國土的限制，只是保障人民言論自由的部分，如果分裂國土進入到具體行動的層次，還是會受到刑法的追訴。

吳育昇也說，其實在大法官會議做成解釋後，內政部就已放寬規定，先後早有台灣共產黨、中華民國共產黨、中國共產聯盟及台灣民主共產黨等以「共產黨」為名的人民團體成立。