Status of proposed National Human Rights Commission debated

The Chinese Human Rights Association (??國?H權協會) sponsored a conference yesterday in an attempt to reach a consensus about whether to set up a future National Human Rights Commission as a government agency, and if so, under which branch of government. The considerable divergence of opinions raised in the conference, however, prevented any agreement from being reached.

Chai Sung-lin (柴松林), president of the China Human Rights Association, stated that educating people about the universality and primacy of human rights should be the main focus of any future commission.

Chai said that the proposed commission be established within the existing China Human Rights Association. The future association should also provide the government with advice on human rights issues, he said.

Other scholars present at the conference proposed that the commission be incorporated into an existing government agency.

Chen Hsin-min (3窈s民) said that if the commission is to be set up within the government, Taiwan's complex and overlapping system of governance would force the commission to be set up under the Office of the President.

Chen insisted that the commission must include representatives from all political parties.

The commission's responsibilities should include the establishment of a human rights index for Taiwan and should issue regular reports on the state of human rights in the country, said Chen.

Other scholars suggested establishing the commission under the Control Yuan.

In an article published early this week, Peter Ng (黃?撊?/CHINESE>), head of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights (台灣?H權促進會), was encouraged by the government's interest in human rights issues, and called on officials to promote the spirit of the "Paris Principles" passed by the UN in 1993.

The Paris Principles stress the independent status of human rights commissions in governments and the participation of rights groups from outside the governmental system in overseeing the status of rights.