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Lu urges founding of national human rights commission

Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday urged the legislature to accelerate the establishment of a National Human Rights Commission.

Lu made the remarks at an international conference held by the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy and Taiwan Society of International Law in Taipei.

The aim of the conference was for Taiwan to learn from experiences shared by other countries in the region and help Taiwan establish her own "National Human Rights Commission."

"My biggest wish as a convener of the advisory group on human rights in the presidential office is to see the establishment of the Commission," Lu said in her opening remarks.

The government proposed that the commission be established in 2000, but the relevant bills have been blocked in the logjammed legislature.

Lu said a new government-sponsored bill on establishing the commission is slated to be sent to the legislature for review next month. She called on legislators from all parties to enact the bill into law as soon as possible.

"The political confrontation which resulted in irrational boycotts by the opposition of the government's bills in the past five years has also blocked the commission," attorney Yu Mei-nu (尤美女) said at the conference.

In response to Yu, Kieren Fitzpatrick, executive director of the Asia-Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions (APF), said that the forums' 17 members can help Taiwan overcome hurdles to the establishment of a commission.

"All our members have had the experience of encountering either support or objection from governments or opposition parties," he said.

The APF was established in 1996 as a non-profit organization that supports the establishment and development of national institutions to protect and promote human rights in the region.
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