President Chen Shui-bian (
The museum will promote constitutional and universal human rights, and also push for the founding of a nation based on respect for those ideals, according to the president.
Chen made the announcement at the opening ceremony of the exhibition, "The road to freedom: Retrospective on Taiwan's Democratic Struggle and Human Rights movement," which was held at the Presidential Office to welcome the arrival of International Human Rights Day on Monday.
Chen said it is an arduous task to integrate and implement civil and universal human rights. To ensure Taiwan will be a nation that honors such commitments in the future, the government is planning to build a museum dedicated to educating the public about human rights.
"On the one hand, the museum will chronicle the nation's history of human rights, it will also educate Taiwanese to safeguard human rights," Chen said.
To demonstrate the government's emphasis on human rights, Chen said authorities had promised to set up the national human rights commission, and will ratify the international convents on civil and political rights, as well as economic, social and cultural rights.
These measures, according to Chen, seek to put Taiwan on par with international standards and put it in step with global trends.
The retrospective chronicles the history of Taiwan's development from the 1950s, when Taiwan was under martial law to the 1990s.
Some of the display items contain stories of what happened to victims' family members and people -- both locals and foreigners -- who had offered assistance when democratic activists were struggling for their ideals.
Lynn Miles, an American who has provided help to democratic campaigners worldwide since the 1960s, when he was a member of the Japanese section of Amnesty International in Osaka, said he wanted to pay tribute to all who had sacrificed their lives to achieve the democracy Taiwan enjoys today.
He was blacklisted by Taiwan's government for 25 years until 1996 for his proffering assistance to promoters of democracy in Taiwan.
Also at attendance at yesterday's ceremony was Labor Affairs Council Chairwoman Chen Chu (陳菊), who was jailed twice, first time in 1978 for her involvement in democratic movement, and later in 1979, for participating in the Kaohsiung Incident (美麗島事件).
The incident, which occurred on Dec. 10 1979, was a state crackdown after an anti-government parade organized by Formosa magazine -- a front for a broad alliance of the so-called "tang wai" (黨外), or "outside the party," activists.
Having been a political prisoner, Chen Chu said the exhibition moved her.
"In the past, the Presidential Office was a symbol of authority and repression, but now it promotes exhibitions on human rights. The transformation did not come easily," she said.
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