Taiwan’s first-ever report on the implementation of the UN International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) marks a milestone in Taiwan’s human rights development, the National Immigration Agency said yesterday.
The report assesses the government’s compliance with the convention by evaluating legislation, institutions, policies and education efforts, Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) told a news conference at the agency in Taipei.
Lo, who is the convener of the Cabinet’s Human Trafficking Prevention and Racial Discrimination Elimination Coordinating Meeting, said that the report was conducted to ensure the nation is observing the treaty’s standards.
Photo: CNA
It is one of nine major conventions that make up the UN’s core human rights covenants and the sole treaty among them that the Republic of China fully adopted before it left the international body in 1971, Lo said.
As a ratified and promulgated treaty, it has the force of domestic law, which the government is duty-bound to implement, he said.
In 2020, the Cabinet finalized plans to implement the ICERD, tasking the Ministry of the Interior with executing measures and making a report of its progress every three years, he said.
Advancing human rights is as important to the nation as economic development, he said.
Although Taiwan is not a UN member, the nation continually strives to comply with international norms and takes pride in promoting the human rights covenants of its own volition, he said.
The Cabinet conducted its examination of human rights in Taiwan according to the standards the UN would have utilized to evaluate a member state, with adjustments to fit local conditions, he said.
“People are not born in equal circumstances, but the human aspiration for equality is universal,” he said.
The interior ministry consulted multiple government departments and 34 non-governmental organizations in the evaluation process, Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥) said.
Taipei’s promulgation of ICERD emphasizes indigenous cultural preservation and justice, revitalization of the language and culture of ethnic minorities, and the promotion of human rights, Immigration Affairs Division head Huang Ling-yu (黃齡玉) said.
The report assesses the effectiveness of the government’s measures to promote equality for ethnic minorities, including indigenous, Hakka, Mongolian and Tibetan peoples, as well as new immigrants and migrant workers, she said.
An evaluation of Taiwan’s compliance with the covenant by international observers is planned for publication in 2024, she said, adding that the government is in the early stages of preparations to determine the makeup of evaluators.
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