The China Post
Date: November 16, 2016
By: Sun Hsin Hsuan
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Anti-forced eviction and land expropriation protesters besieged the Interior Ministry
Demonstrators place red handprints on banners referring to “the blood and tears” of the anti-eviction movement in front of the Interior Ministry on Tuesday, Nov. 15. The protesters demanded that housing rights be explicitly laid out in a new Housing Act amendment. (Sun Hsin Hsuan, The China Post)
and charged at an official Tuesday morning, demanding that people’s fundamental housing rights be enshrined in a new Housing Act amendment.
Both current laws and a Cabinet-drafted amendment, which has passed its first reading and is under legislative review, fail to clearly define when government plans supersede an individual’s right to housing, the demonstrators said.
“It must be stipulated clearly by law the conditions under which the government can establish what is ‘in the public interest,'” said Tien Kei-fung of the Taiwan Alliance of Anti-Forced Eviction, which organized the protest.
Members of the alliance and 10 other civic groups, numbering nearly two dozen in total, joined the demonstration, seeking to defend what they say are illegal land expropriations plans that will see people’s homes and factories taken from them to make room for development.
In a joint statement, the participants called for more resources to ensure people can exercise their right to appeal land expropriation decisions. [FULL STORY]
