After the Organic Act of the Control Yuan National Human Rights Commission passed the third reading on December 10, 2019, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) was formally launched on August 1, 2020. The NHRC was established by the Control Yuan and is composed of 10 members: a chairperson, a vice chairperson, and eight other members.
The idea to establish a national human rights commission in Taiwan was first proposed by professor and human rights scholar Mab Huang in 1997. In 1999, Taiwan Association for Human Rights President Peter Huang joined with 22 other civic organizations to form the Coalition for the Promotion of a National Human Rights Commission and initiate a social movement that advocated the establishment of a national human rights institution. This course of events was intricately related to both domestic and international situations during the 1990s, including the completion of democratic constitutional reform in Taiwan and the United Nations’ increasing emphasis on the establishment and operation of national human rights mechanisms.
In 1946, the United Nations Economic and Social Council asked member nations to consider setting up information groups or regional human rights commissions. Two years later, the UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and in 1966 it adopted the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Human rights issues became an important part of the UN’s work.
In 1978, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, which was later replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council, organized a workshop to draft guidelines for the organization and scope of authority of human rights institutions. Soon after, the United Nations General Assembly successively adopted international human rights conventions pertaining to women, children, migrant workers, persons with disabilities,and the prevention of torture. While formulating these international human rights standards, the UN also encouraged countries to set up their own national human rights institutions and to abide by and implement the UN international human rights conventions.
The UN’s Paris Principles established standards for national human rights institutions. In 1990, the UN Commission on Human Rights requested that a workshop be held. Representatives from national and regional institutions engaged in the promotion and protection of human rights were invited to participate.
The first workshop was held in Paris from October 7 to 9, 1991. The workshop concluded with the Principles Relating to the Status of National Institutions, which was abbreviated as the Paris Principles. The UN General Assembly adopted the Paris Principles on December 20, 1993. The principles encourage, advocate for, and assist countries in establishing national human rights institutions. They also require that national human rights institutions have a wide range of functions and powers to be exercised in accordance with international human rights standards, as well as independence, pluralism, adequate resources, and full investigative powers. The UN subsequently established the International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (ICC).
Statistics compiled by scholar Fort Liao showed that 112 national human rights institutions were successively established between 1990 and 2009 as a result of the ICC’s work in this area. At the same time, Taiwan initiated democratic and constitutional reforms (1990), held its first direct legislative election (1992) and first direct presidential election (1996), and experienced its first political party rotation (2000). As a result, the people and the government began actively carrying out plans to establish a national human rights institution. On August 1, 2020, Taiwan officially established the National Human Rights Commission.