Doing his bit to to celebrate International Human Rights Day, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday signed a document called the ""Declaration of Human Rights for Young Girls"" (少女人權宣言).
Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) also held a press conference yesterday morning to announce the government's human-rights policy and future plans, as well as to stress its commitment to protect human rights in Taiwan.
According to Chang, his Cabinet has already requested the legislature on April 25 to ratify the two major international conventions on the protection of civic, political, economic, social and cultural rights. Moreover, the Cabinet has ordered government agencies to conduct a comprehensive review on current domestic laws to see whether they have violated any international human rights conventions.
Chang also said that his Cabinet has set up a human-rights task force to push for the establishment of a national human-rights commission in order to better protect basic human rights.
"On Feb. 1, 2002," Chang said, "the Cabinet is scheduled to unveil its first whitepaper on its human rights policy. It will also release a national human rights report annually to review the domestic human-rights conditions."
The premier yesterday also urged China to renounce military threats against Taiwan in line with the UN-initiated Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Fifty-three years ago, the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Noting that human rights are universal values, Chang said that human rights can only be truly protected only in a peaceful, healthy environment.
"China's leaders should respect the common aspiration -- of the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait -- for basic human rights and renounce their threat of the use of military force against Taiwan," Chang said.
Chen's signing of the "Declaration of Human Rights for Young Girls" at a press conference in Taipei was aimed to show the government's determination to uphold human rights.
The declaration was drafted by the Garden of Hope Foundation (勵馨基金會) and the foundation also convened the press conference.
"When limited social resources are to be distributed among a large population, the under-aged and females are the two groups most easily ignored," a foundation staff member said.
"Young girls are doubly disadvantaged because they are both under-aged and females," the staff member added.
According to the foundation, it will attend the UN's special session on child rights on Sunday and will display the declaration to the international community to show Taiwan's determination to promote human rights both at home and abroad.
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