Nov. 27, 2019: International Decade of Human Rights.

“Act to Implement the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights” has been implemented in Taiwan for ten years. MOJ, the central authority of promoting the two Covenants, elaborated the efforts and determination to advance human rights on a tea-time talk with media on Nov. 27 this year and forecasted recent Activities about human rights.

MOJ works hard on publicizing the importance of human rights through education and eliminating human rights violations. Besides, MOJ organizes international review of the national reports of the two Covenants, establishes the human rights indicators in line with UN standards, and has been more active in the Taiwan-EU annual human rights consultation meeting in recent years, working to bring Taiwan’s human rights protection standards into line with international standards.

Especially in the field of human rights advocacy and training, MOJ is continually making innovations. MOJ conducted seed teacher training courses, invited experts and scholars to give lectures on human rights and held widely-acclaimed human rights exhibitions. MOJ has held human rights film exhibitions for many years and conducted post-screening human rights lectures with experts and scholars, which has brought participants closer to human rights issues and deepened their understanding of human rights concepts. Since 2018, MOJ has also expanded co-organization of human rights festivals with local governments to promote universal human rights values. All parties have participated and responded enthusiastically.

At present, MOJ is actively planning to organize a symposium on the 10th anniversary of the two Covenants' domestic legalization. It is scheduled to invite experts, scholars, and human rights groups to explore the review mechanism of the two Covenants on December 9 and 10 and review the implementation status of the two Covenants in Taiwan. Besides, the connection with the international community has also continued. Both Taiwan and the EU have agreed to hold the 3rd Taiwan-EU Annual Human Rights Consultation Conference in Taipei in 2020 and continue to operation on various consultation issues. Matters related to the third national report of the two Covenants are also in full swing. It is expected that a Chinese version will be published at the end of December 2019, and an international review was scheduled in January 2020.

At the time of the 10th anniversary of the two Covenants' domestic legalization, we firmly believe that the results of hard work in the previous ten years will be an essential foundation for the next ten years. In the future, MOJ will deepen the handling of various human rights businesses and continue to publicize the two Covenants in a pluralistic manner, echoing the international initiatives on the value of human rights.