Chen Chun-mei, Hsu Chin-he, and five others sought the right for women and their descendants to participate in ancestral worship property distributions, requesting that the Constitutional Court make a judgment regarding the regulations stipulated in Article 4 of the Act for Ancestor Worship Guild and the content of Judicial Yuan interpretation No. 728 (2015). The National Human Rights Commission members Chi Hui-jung and Su Li-chiung attended the Constitutional Court as an expert agency to offer their opinions on whether Article 4 of the Act for Ancestor Worship Guild is unconstitutional, with Chi subsequently making a verbal statement.
Commission members Chi Hui-jung and Su Li-chiung indicated that according to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women as well as Article 10, Paragraph 6 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China, the state is mandated to actively eliminate gender discrimination and promote substantive gender equality. As a country voluntarily complying with CEDAW , Taiwan is obligated under Article 2 of the convention to take all measures, including enacting or amending laws, to eliminate customs, traditions, and legal practices that discriminate against women. Furthermore, according to Article 5 of the convention, Taiwan has a duty to take all appropriate measures to eliminate and prevent any gender-based prejudices and customs that arise from laws, religious practices, or traditions.
Therefore, the commission advised that the state should fulfill its duty to take all appropriate measures to eliminate and prevent any gender-based prejudices and customs arising from laws, religious practices, or traditions, and hoped that with everyone’s cooperation and efforts that Taiwan would move farther along the path of gender equality.
Accordingly, on January 1, 2023, the Constitutional Court made Judgment 112-Hsien-Pan-1.