The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (the CRPD or Convention) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2006. Article 33, Paragraph 2 of the Convention mandates that States Parties shall establish under their legal and administrative systems a framework based on the Paris Principles that includes one or more independent mechanisms to promote, protect and monitor the implementation of the CRPD.
In 2014, Taiwan promulgated the Act to Implement the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (the CRPD Enforcement Law), which grants the Convention legal status in Taiwan and requires any other laws and policies that are not in compliance with the Convention to be amended by a specified deadline. Article 5 of the CRPD Enforcement Law requires the government to establish standards and guidelines to assess the implementation of the CRPD and its impact on human rights as well as to develop mechanisms to assess and evaluate the impact of policies and the act.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) was established on August 1, 2020. In September 2021, the NHRC held a press conference to release the NHRC’s Opinions on the Second National Report of the Republic of China (Taiwan) on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and announce its intention of establishing an independent monitoring mechanism in accordance with Article 33 of the Convention. In June 2022, the NHRC approved the CRPD Implementation Monitoring Mechanism Adoption Plan.
The Concluding Observations of the Second Report of the Republic of China (Taiwan) on the CRPD, published in August 2022, recommend that the government of Taiwan give the NHRC a clear legal mandate as the independent monitoring mechanism and ensure that persons with disabilities and their representative organizations are able to effectively participate in monitoring the implementation of the Convention. The NHRC presented its 2023–2026 Medium-Term Strategic Plan in August 2023. In this plan, Strategy 1.2.1 (“Establishing a mechanism for monitoring the implementation of the CRPD”) involves compiling a comprehensive list of the concerns of persons with disabilities and their representative organizations and engaging with them to address those concerns. The objective is to monitor the implementation of the CPRD and additionally publish a monitoring report on a periodic basis.
With reference to foreign practices in the independent monitoring of the CRPD, the NHRC organized a series of events from August–November 2023 to collect opinions on the CRPD implementation monitoring mechanism. These events included six regional seminar sessions, three focus group interviews, and one questionnaire survey, which were held to ascertain the opinions of persons with disabilities and their representative organizations on the CRPD implementation monitoring mechanism, to promote the participation of persons with disabilities and their representative organizations, and to collect information on issues of concern with respect to the rights of persons with disabilities.
According to the survey results, the top three rights that the respondents in general and in particular respondents with disabilities were most concerned about were “work and employment,” “equality and non-discrimination,” and “right to life and freedom from exploitation, violence and abuse.”
Going forward, the NHRC will implement the CRPD implementation monitoring mechanism in accordance with its 2023–2026 Medium-Term Strategic Plan and with Implementing the Rights of Persons with Disabilities–the Role of Independent Monitoring Frameworks: Practical Guide, which was issued by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Moreover, the NHRC will cooperate with persons with disabilities and their representative organizations to launch monitoring plans and empowerment schemes and monitor the implementation of the CRPD in Taiwan.