Island of Hope

Publish Date: 06/01/2001 
Story Type: SOCIETY; HUMAN RIGHTS 
Byline: KELLY HER

PHOTOS BY HUANG CHUNG-HSIN

Human rights remained a taboo subject in Taiwan for the decades when the island was subject to martial law. Now, however, the government is cooperating with civic groups to take some more positive steps. In which areas is Taiwan doing well, and perhaps not so well? And what factors are likely to influence progress?

Activism has gained a hold in Taiwan society. People are more willing to make public demands and the media are eager to record such events.

Green Island sits off the southeast coast of Taiwan, opposite Taitung County. As its name implies, it is in many respects a delightful verdant place, and efforts are under way to turn it into a tourist attraction. One of the things tourists can look at is a monument, erected under the aegis of the Human Rights Education Foundation, founded in 1994 to help raise human rights awareness. This, the first human rights monument ever to be built in Asia, was officially inaugurated in December 1999 and its location is no accident. For it was to Green Island that many victims of the White Terror were taken to spend dreary years of incarceration. The terror began in the late 1940s when the ROC declared martial law and ended with its repeal in 1987. During that period, human rights virtually ceased to exist in Taiwan. Many citizens were dragged from their homes to be killed, imprisoned, or simply left to rot in Green Island and dozens of prison camps just like it. 

"The government's past mistakes are understandable and can be forgiven, but under no circumstances should they be forgotten," emphasizes writer Bo Yang, who was himself a Green Island inmate and is now honorary chairman of the Human Rights Education Foundation. "If they are, then the same things will happen all over again, to us or our children. By covering up, fleeing, or distorting history, people just end up repeating the same mistakes." 

Justice has been a long time coming. In 1995, then President Lee Teng-hui formally apologized to the families of the victims of the White Terror and ordered the establishment of a foundation to handle compensation. This year, President Chen Shui-bian ruled that the government files on the February 28 Incident should be opened to researchers. But these are still only the latest steps in a long journey. It was with the formation of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Taiwan's first genuine opposition party, in 1986, and the lifting of martial law in 1987, that Taiwan set off in a totally new direction. Senior government posts were opened to public election, and the most basic human rights--freedom of expression, the right to assemble peacefully, and freedom of association--were gradually affirmed. There are no more prisoners of conscience, no more extrajudicial killings, and civil liberties are, by and large, respected. 

This is all the more remarkable, given the cultural background. "Children here are taught to obey their parents, listen to their government, and fulfill their responsibilities," says Brian Kennedy, a US attorney who writes about Taiwan's criminal justice system and human rights issues. This type of upbringing makes it difficult for youths to learn how to deal with people as equals and accept adult responsibilities. 

Another factor militating against development of human rights in Taiwan was its international isolation. When the ROC was expelled from the United Nations in 1971, it was in effect cut off from fruitful contact with the international human rights environment. How might things have been different if the ROC had retained its membership in the UN? According to Peter Huang, an executive committee member and former chairman of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights (TAHR), the landscape would look much different today. 

He lists a few examples. Successive governments would have had to breed a generation of officials who knew the nuts and bolts of human rights legislation. The media would have had much more to write about every time the ROC cast its vote on a human rights issue, increasing public awareness generally. Government agencies and nongovernment organizations (NGOs) would have participated in numerous UN conferences, activities, and projects relating to human rights. Taiwan also would have had to accede to at least the major conventions and submit the required national reports. 

Against that background, the remarkable thing is not that Taiwan has made little progress, but that it has made so much. "Taiwan is supposed to have undergone a 'quiet revolution,'" Huang says. "In fact, it was neither quiet nor a revolution. The Kuomintang (KMT) remained in power until a year ago. But because it was caught up in the most recent worldwide wave of democratization, and thanks to growing popular pressure in the mid-1980s, it had to make concessions and compromises to stay in power."

Faced with growing public dissent, the Kuomintang in the mid-1980s began to implement democratic reforms in order to stay in power.

Mab Huang, a professor at Soochow University's Department of Political Science, points to other factors that brought pressure to bear on the KMT. "Thanks to the gradual rise of social awareness and activism, numerous NGOs, for instance those organized by environmentalists, women, laborers, and aborigines, had a substantial effect," he explains. "The present government understands that emphasizing human rights will help lift Taiwan's international image, while at the same time making a striking contrast with its arch rival, China." 

For Huang, the end of 1999 was a significant turning point, the moment when the atmosphere changed. He speculates that the new feeling in the air may have had something to do with the upcoming presidential election. Everyone knew the historical background of the DPP, many of whose members had suffered personally in the White Terror, and it was a foregone conclusion that human rights would play a major role in the campaign. Not surprisingly, all three presidential nominees incorporated human rights goals into their respective platforms. 

Then came the presidential election, and a peaceful transfer of power from one party to another. In his inaugural address delivered on May 20, 2000, which apparently caught the international community by surprise and received much favorable press coverage, President Chen committed Taiwan to upholding various international standards, in particular the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, and the Declaration and Action Program of the 1993 Vienna Conference on Human Rights. 

The new government announced it would do three things: request the legislature to ratify the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, create an independent national human rights commission, and invite Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists to advise on implementation issues. In August last year, President Chen also set up an advisory committee on human rights affairs, chaired by Vice President Annette Lu. 

What exactly has the president committed the island to? The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, drawn up by the UN at the end of World War II, contains thirty articles which provide that certain rights should be enjoyed by all individuals, regardless of their ethnic group, gender, language, or religious beliefs (if any). In essence, everybody ought to enjoy the right to work, the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, the right to an education, the right to medical treatment and health care, the right to participate in elections, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, or other disability. 

Chai Sung-lin, president of the Chinese Association for Human Rights, which was set up as long ago as the mid-1970s, points out that this extensive list comes as something of a surprise to many Taiwanese. "Here, people generally associate human rights with political prisoners, blacklists, and bans on the formation of political parties. But that's too narrow," he says. "In fact, the concept of human rights encompasses four major fields: survival, freedom, welfare, and the common interest." 

Survival-centered rights are often neglected in Taiwan, Chai believes. There has not been much progress here over the past ten years. Social order has declined to the point where many people feel threatened, especially women. Taiwan has done better in the areas of freedom of speech, press, assembly, and association, although at times it seems as though freedom of speech is equated with a supposed right to invade the privacy and rights of others. Rights of association require further protection, according to Chai, because the regulations governing the establishment of civil organizations and corporate bodies are too strict. And residents still need to file applications with the police in advance if they want to hold a public rally. 

Welfare is another matter entirely. In that area at least, there have been substantial improvements, particularly in the spheres of education and medical care. But the government has yet to formulate consistent, stable welfare policies for the care of the handicapped and the elderly. Mobility is still a major problem for the handicapped, and the government says it cannot afford to implement a much-needed national pension plan at present.

Progress has been made in the area of welfare rights, but the island still lacks a much-needed national pension plan due to budgetary considerations.

So over the past decade, Taiwan has been doing well in certain areas but not so well in others. "With the changing political landscape, and in particular the holding of direct presidential elections, the right to participate in the political process has been secured," says Lin Feng-jeng, president of TAHR. "This, together with other basic rights such as freedom of speech and assembly, signaled the completion of the first phase of entrenching human rights in Taiwan." 

What comes next? The TAHR, established in 1984, is one of the oldest independent human rights organizations on the island. In its early years, it mainly worked for the release of political prisoners in collaboration with Amnesty International. But now, in line with changing needs, the association has shifted its focus to such contemporary issues as the abolition of the death penalty, making police officers and military personnel accountable for human rights abuses, and judicial reform. The association organizes campaigns regarding particular issues and individual cases after receiving reports of human rights abuses from victims and their relatives. It conducts preliminary investigations, refers individuals to suitable channels for assistance and, where appropriate, mobilizes international support. 

The association works with other domestic NGOs to promote human rights in specific sectors, such as women, laborers, indigenous peoples, and children. "Taiwan didn't begin to think about these problems until the 1990s," Lin says. "In comparison, the international community had been addressing them since the 1960s. Taiwan has to accelerate its efforts to keep up with international standards and practice." 

Many observers believe education is the key to accelerating such efforts. "Human rights education is practically nonexistent in Taiwan. Human rights awareness, or what we might call a human rights mentality, has very shallow roots here," notes Brian Kennedy. "Serious human rights abuses still occur on a daily basis and the public has a very apathetic attitude toward this fact." In Taiwan, there are only a handful of human rights courses offered by its approximately 135 universities and colleges. High-school students, meanwhile, learn virtually nothing about the issue. 

The TAHR's Lin concurs. He regards education as more important than working on individual "rescue" cases. "Education serves to cultivate the very roots of human rights awareness," he says. "And it should begin with young students, because one day they're going to be the backbone of society--many of them will become administrators, judges, and lawyers." His organization also hopes to provide human rights training for specific professional sectors, including the judiciary and lawyers, law-enforcement personnel, military officers, educators, and doctors. 

Chai Sung-lin of the Chinese Association for Human Rights also believes in education. "The most urgent task facing the government is the promotion of human rights education, and it should start in elementary school," he says. (The Ministry of Education has already announced that human rights instruction will be incorporated into the nine-year compulsory education system, starting this year.) 

In fulfillment of President Chen's post-election pledges on human rights, a draft of the Human Rights Basic Law was recently completed by a committee jointly staffed by employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice, and sent to the Cabinet for review. The draft, which is meant to enshrine the spirit of the International Bill of Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights, sets out to protect the civil, political, educational, social, and economic rights of all citizens. It offers specific protection to such groups as women, children, the elderly, and the indigenous population, as well as providing separately for the rights of laborers and soldiers. In case of conflict between the basic law and existing legislation the former will prevail, and any domestic law will be amended or repealed if it violates the principles laid down by the basic law. 

Brian Kennedy believes such a basic law has no basis in the island's legal structure. "What the public deserves is a Constitutional Bill of Rights," he contends. "Not another set of statutes that are likely to be ignored by law enforcement personnel." Peter Huang believes that this comprehensive new law is necessary, because existing piecemeal legislation is not comprehensive enough, particularly in the realm of personal privacy. Many other countries, including Germany and Canada, have such laws. 

But some other scholars and activists, including Mab Huang and Lin Feng-jeng, do not agree. They argue that the new law is likely to conflict with numerous other laws, or even the ROC Constitution, and will thus be a fruitful source of confusion. They want the establishment of an independent national human rights commission to be given priority, because once such an organization exists it will be able to assist the legislature and government agencies to conduct an overview of existing laws, and then draft all necessary revisions. 

The ultimate format of the commission is still far from settled, however. At the moment there are three possible scenarios, provided respectively by Mab Huang and his working group, the Cabinet's Research, Development, and Evaluation Commission, and the KMT. The drafts have much in common, but differences remain over who should staff the commission, and the scope of its investigative powers. What does seem clear is that the commission's functions will include investigation of alleged violations of human rights, bringing laws into conformity with international standards, presenting regular reports, and promoting human rights education. There is also agreement that the commission must respect the principles of independence and effectiveness, and must act in such a way as to reflect the diversity of society. 

The commission is clearly going to have its work cut out, but some critics still argue that its proposed remit is not wide enough. Mab Huang emphasizes that it should not concern itself solely with civil and political rights, but should also be prepared to investigate abuses of cultural, economic, and social rights, especially where disadvantaged groups are concerned. "With the collapse of the former authoritarian regime and the rise of new social movements, economic, social, and cultural rights issues have become urgent," he argues. 

On another front, how is Taiwan doing with regard to "human rights diplomacy"? Mab Huang does not think that Taiwan has much to boast about. "Nonprofit organizations [NPOs] such as the Tzu Chi foundation and some medical service teams have undertaken relatively frequent rescue and relief missions abroad," he says. "That's what Taiwan has done best. But most of the NGOs that focus on disadvantaged groups are still in the initial stages of development here, with limited resources for things like international exchanges." This is a pity, because NGOs the world over have contributed greatly to the international human rights movement and established many international networks. "If we really want to promote human rights diplomacy, we need to place equal emphasis on the development of both NGOs and NPOs," he suggests. "In particular, the government should divert more of its sources to helping NGOs." 

Many people believe that the true value of a nation depends on the extent to which it upholds and maintains human rights. Taiwan has achieved much, but it still has a long way to go. "Human rights work is a never-ending effort," says writer and activist Bo Yang. "We must be vigilant, because otherwise these rights could once again be taken away from us."