President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of March 8 with ambassadors to the First Asia Youth Human Rights Summit. The president encouraged the guests to devote their lives to the protection of human rights, and he also reiterated the ROC's commitment to guaranteeing human rights in a bid to bring its practices in step with those of the international community.
In remarks, the president stated that the protection of human rights is a universal value. The protection of human rights has become a worldwide trend since the United Nations (UN) in 1948 passed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The president pointed out that the UN in 1966 passed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. While the ROC signed these two covenants back in 1967, he explained, it was unable to complete ratification because it lost its representation in the UN. It was not until 2008 after he became president that he, on Human Rights Day on December 10 of that year, announced that the ROC would ratify these two covenants as quickly as possible. He added that he signed the instruments of ratification for these two documents on May 14 of the following year.
The president furthermore stated that even though the UN Secretariat did not accept the instruments of ratification documents from the ROC because the nation had lost its seat in the UN, the ROC on April 22, 2009 passed an act governing implementation of the two covenants. This step incorporated the two covenants into domestic law, he said, making them binding up the nation's government agencies and courts. The president furthermore expressed his hope that this move will bring the ROC's human rights protections in line with world standards.
In addition to passing the implementation act, President Ma remarked, the ROC also followed UN procedures in establishing the Presidential Office Human Rights Consultative Committee, and each year will conduct a review and compile a national human rights report. President Ma said that this report is also produced in English, and 10 international human rights experts were invited to Taiwan to review the report this past February. On March 1 this year the group submitted its report. This enables people here and overseas to understand the state of human rights protections in the ROC, and it also shows that the ROC is both willing to produce such a report and serious about having outside parties examine its implementation.
President Ma emphasized that even though the ROC is unable to attend UN activities, its human rights protections are implemented in full accordance with UN standards, which shows the ROC's sincere determination to protect human rights.
The president mentioned that March 8 was also International Women's Day 2013. He noted that the ROC has already passed an act governing implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and that this act went into effect on January 1 of last year. In the future, he said, the government will use this same method to incorporate into domestic law other international conventions that the nation is unable to join, so the ROC will not be sidelined from important international conventions and will be able to demonstrate its strong willingness to participate in international affairs.
President Ma stated that children should learn about human rights from a young age so people will understand the importance of protecting human rights and see how human rights ensure social tranquility and freedom. He said he encourages young people to be actively involved in human rights activities for this reason. He also urged the visitors to consider the relationship between protecting human rights and the wellbeing of the public, and to work for the protection of human rights.
The members of the visiting group were from the United States, Germany, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Japan, Mexico, Australia, and the ROC, and were led to the Presidential Office by Dr. Mary Shuttleworth (Founder and President of Youth for Human Rights International) and President Hsu Ya-chen (許雅琛) of Chunghwa Association for Human Rights to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting were National Security Council Advisor Francis Yi-Hua Kan (甘逸驊) and Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Vanessa Yea-Ping Shih (史亞平).