On Jan. 2, Vice President and KMT presidential candidate Lien Chan (
For many years, the United Nations has been encouraging its member nations to establish a human rights commission. Since the Second World War, around 100 human rights treaties have been signed (if those of the International Labor Organization are included, the total would be nearly 200). In addition to this body of law, the issue of implementation and human rights mechanisms is another problem, particularly at the crucial level of individual states. Therefore, the UN began a campaign to push its members to establish national human rights institutions. Beginning in the mid-1970s, when the main human rights covenants came into effect, the UN sped up its pace to push the first wave of establishing NHRCs, among which was Australia's Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission.
In 1991, an international conference was convened to discuss the criteria needed to secure the independence and effectiveness of national human rights institutions. The resulting "Paris Principles" were adopted by the UN's General Assembly in 1992 and followed up by international and regional activities to promote them. Although the UN has never made it an obligation to establish a national human rights institution -- which are in most countries termed "national human rights commissions" -- many countries have been inspired by the "Paris Principles" to establish such bodies. Even in Asia, where "Asian values" were once a strong political current, Australia, New Zealand, India, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Sri Lanka have already established human rights institutions, and South Korea, Japan and Bangladesh are in the process of setting up theirs. In Taiwan, local human rights and social activists, lawyers, and judicial reform groups organized a "National Human Rights Commission Promoting Coalition" at the end of last year in a move to campaign for the idea in our country.
Illustration: Yu Sha
Although an NHRC is just a mechanism to supplement the normal operation of the government's existing branches, a look at its basic functions shows us why Taiwan, which has long been cut off from the international human rights system, needs to establish such an institution:
-- Investigating cases that may involve violations of human rights, especially those involving discrimination or unfairness, undertaking mediation or arbitration and helping human rights victims or groups to file lawsuits if necessary.
-- Reviewing and studying the country's laws or draft legislation on the basis of constitutional and international human rights standards, and proposing amendments or new legislation.
-- Planning and advising on national human rights policy, including international human rights and humanitarian aid measures.
-- Planning and promoting human rights education in and outside schools, including human rights education for judges, lawyers, social workers, journalists, the police and the military.
-- Submitting annual and thematic national human rights reports.
Are these not the fundamental infrastructure for promoting human rights that Taiwan should long have had, but still does not?
Although Lien has not spelled out the details, we are glad to hear his emphasis that the NHRC should be "non-partisan and free of government interference" -- exactly the spirit of the UN's "Paris Principles."
Take South Korea as an example. Establishing an NHRC was an initiative of Korean NGOs. In 1998, to reap publicity in the world-wide, year-long rush to mark the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the South Korean government declared a plan to establish one. The draft legislation, however, was rejected by civil society organizations as having insufficient mechanisms to ensure the independence and effectiveness of the commission. Now a new draft is under negotiation.
If Taiwan wants to establish a human rights commission, it must abide by the "Paris Principles" -- or the even stricter "AI Principles" proposed by Amnesty International -- and learn from other commissions abroad so that we don't end up with simply one more bureaucracy.
A law that does not meet the criteria of human rights cannot protect human rights; on the contrary, it may become an instrument in their violation. Unless public affairs and services are administered according to law and with fairness, even a popularly-elected government can easily turn into a spoils system. Herein lies the key position of human rights in the human rights/rule of law/ democracy trinity. Because of its past authoritarianism and its long international isolation, Taiwan's level of human rights awareness and practices is still restricted to the standards that it obtained before WWII. We are glad to see a presidential candidate advocating "the introduction of progressive international human rights standards to Taiwan" and offering a proposal to put it into effect.
But this is just a start. All reforms must go through struggles between the government, political parties and the people. I hope both the ruling and opposition parties will give their attention to the establishment of an NHRC. Taiwan's special democratic problems, such as "black gold," party assets and the status of the National Assembly, certainly need urgent attention and action; however ultimately, "a democracy of high quality" can only be based on a rule of law that is based on human rights.
Peter Huang (
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