Abstract

Abstract

The National Human Rights Action Plan is Taiwan’s commitment to safeguarding human rights. In response to the advocacy of domestic and foreign human rights experts, scholars, and non-governmental groups as well as the UN’s encouragement of member states to formulate action plans, the National Human Rights Action Plan Consultative Committee was established with diverse members representing different groups to facilitate the development of Taiwan’s first National Human Rights Action Plan.

Human rights protection is a long-term pursuit of ever-improving standards which must be achieved in a pragmatic, step-by-step manner. This action plan represents Taiwan’s progress, commitments, and efforts to promote and protect human rights to 2024. The emphasis on the concept of “improving human rights” as an administration goal is a through line of the plan. This action plan is divided into five chapters: the “Foreword” that introduces the background of formulating the action plan, “Formulation Process and Selection of Human Rights Issues,” which elaborates on the formulation process and considerations, “Maintaining the Independence of the National Human Rights Commission,” which talks about the administration department and the commitment to follow their suggestions, “Human Rights Issues,” which highlights prioritized issues that must be improved upon urgently, and “Execution, Supervision, and Assessment,” which discusses how to handle the action plan once it is passed.

The Executive Yuan has been working on the formulation of this action plan since 2018. In the spirit of information disclosure and wider participation, the Executive Yuan organized public hearing sessions, held seminars on individual issues, and posted information on the Public Policy Online Participation Network Platform - Talk Section, working with NGOs, experts, scholars, and the general public to take stock of human rights deficiencies that the government needs to improve within four to five years and prepare resources for possible implementations. Special attention should be paid to disadvantaged groups that lack adequate legal and social resources or are marginalized. Considering the impact of human rights violations, current international trends, and other important factors, the government works with different groups to discuss the framework of the National Human Rights Action Plan, focusing on eight priority human rights issues that include “strengthening human rights protection,” “human rights education,” “equality and non-discrimination,” “enhancing protections of the right to life,” “housing justice,” “climate change and human rights,” “digital human rights,” and “refugee rights and protection” in order to zoom in on urgent matters in need of reform. The government also takes into account opinions of different sectors of the public to revise specific steps to better the action plan, completion

schedules, key performance indicators, and other matters in order to build consensus and support for Taiwan’s first national human rights action plan.

This action plan takes pragmatic steps to promote human rights reform, proposing feasible solutions and regular assessment mechanisms to keep the plan on track with high-quality performance so as to ensure Taiwan’s sustainable development and continuous improvement of human rights standards. The government also carefully considers human rights issues that were nominated by different sectors of the public but not included in this action plan, calling on competent authorities to include any immediate steps that can be taken to improve matters into their routine work. Issues that still require social consensus or additional resources can be noted for the next action plan as a promise to actively work on the matter.