The Taiwan High Court ruled on Tuesday that a care facility for HIV/AIDS patients does not have to relocate from its current site in a Taipei apartment complex. The case cannot be appealed again.

The court made the ruling on the grounds that a newly amended act that was passed in the Legislature last month - the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Prevention and Patients Rights Protection Act - stipulates that those suffering from HIV/AIDS who have Taiwanese citizenship at birth cannot be treated with discrimination, and cannot be denied attending school, visits to the hospital, finding residence, or other similar necessities.

Spokesman of the court Wen Yao-yuan noted that the amended act explicitly secures AIDS patients human rights, including their living rights, thus the court ruled that the care facility should not be relocated.

After learning of the ruling, People First Party Legislator Lee Fu-tien noted that the ruling highlights Taiwans high level of concern for human rights. "The ruling has a symbolic meaning in terms of human rights advancement in Taiwan; it will certainly help boost Taiwans image in the international society," said the legislator in a statement released to reporters.

Lee said that he understands the panic of the neighbors who live near the care facility; however, he also wishes that the ruling will help educate the general public on the knowledge of HIV/AIDS.

"HIV can only be contracted through sexual intercourse, blood transfusions or breast feeding. People are not at risk of contracting HIV by simply having an AIDS patient living next door," Lee said in the statement.

Responding on the ruling, the Harmony Home Association, which operates the facility, told reporters that they just hope the patients can keep living in the complex without being relocated. The association said that the facility, set up in 2005, is now home to mothers and babies who are infected with HIV/AIDS, but critical patients had long been relocated to a midway facility in Taichung.

The Taipei District Court ruled last October that the facility for those who are infected with either HIV or full-blown AIDS must relocate from the Tsaihsing apartment complex in Taipeis Wenshan District because of public health concerns. The court made the ruling based on its opinion that residents of the home posed a threat to the psychological health of other people living in the complex.

Right after the district court made the ruling, several civil groups came forward in support of the care facility. The Department of Health also expressed regret over the ruling, saying that it would offer legal assistance to the care facility so that it could appeal the case.

The facility of the apartment was rented to the association by Wang Chi-tung, the son of former Judicial Yuan Vice President Wang Tao-yuan.

The complexs management committee called for two rounds of meetings in 2005, in which it agreed that the care facility be relocated within three months. But Yang refused to comply, prompting the committee to file a lawsuit to seek a court order for the facility to be relocated. The district court ruled in the committees favor after four rounds of hearing.