The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is an independent body dedicated to the protection and promotion of human rights. It was established pursuant to the Organic Act of the Control Yuan National Human Rights Commission announced on January 8, 2020 and was launched on August 1 of the same year.
The NHRC's legislative mandates include providing independent opinions on national reports on human rights conventions to ensure that domestic laws and administrative measures are in accordance with international human rights instruments. In December 2020, the Executive Yuan provided the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) Second Report pursuant to the Act to Implement the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The NHRC dispatched 2 members with practical experience in disability issues to hold 3 regional forums between February and May of 2021, which were attended by 105 representatives of disabled persons' organizations. The NHRC also held 5 focus group interviews, each of which focused on a different type of disability, with 39 representatives in total in attendance. The NHRC did so to solicit a broad range of opinions from persons with disabilities and their representative organizations and to form an understanding of the actual conditions related to disability issues in order to serve as an important basis for the drafting of independent opinions.
Furthermore, in response to certain inadequacies and matters that need clarifying within the contents of the CRPD Second Report, the NHRC has requested 19 government agencies to submit written and statistical reports. The NHRC compiled the feedback collected from representatives of disabled person organizations who were in attendance at the regional forums as well as that of persons with disabilities who participated in the focus group interviews and then compared their feedback with the actual implementation of disability-related policies by government agencies. Additionally, the NHRC held both physical and online meetings from April to July of 2021 to discuss and exchange opinions on important disability-related issues with various government agencies, including the Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Transportation and Communications, National Communications Commission, Financial Supervisory Commission, Ministry of Labor, Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
On July 19, 2021, according to article 33 of the CRPD and in response to the Concluding Observations of the ROC's Initial CRPD Report, the NHRC passed a resolution affirming the NHRC to serve as a domestic independent monitoring mechanism with regard to the rights of persons with disabilities.