President Ma Ying-jeou met on the afternoon of May 13 with Raul Plascencia, president of Mexico's National Human Rights Commission and chairman of the Ibero-American Federation of Ombudsmen (FIO). The president welcomed Mr. and Mrs. Plascencia to Taiwan and called for continued enhancement of bilateral ties so the two can work together to raise the standard of human rights protections in countries throughout the world.
In remarks, President Ma commented that nations throughout the Ibero-American region began in the 1990s setting up national human rights institutions, which are indicators of the presence of a highly developed democratic political system. These entities act as government watchdogs to uncover any negligence or abuse of power, and their existence also serves to emphasize the importance of human rights protections, he said. The president noted that the FIO was founded in 1995 by national human rights organizations in the region to work in concert for human rights protections. He commented that after 20 years of efforts by the member nations of the organization, human rights standards in the Ibero-American region have been considerably enhanced.
President Ma stated that Taiwan's Control Yuan was established to promote good governance and to address grievances from the public. As a result of heightened human rights awareness in recent years, he said, the number of grievances handled by the Control Yuan has been on the rise.
The president mentioned that back in 1999 when the FIO had been established for just four years, Louis R. Chao (趙榮耀), a member of Taiwan's Control Yuan, was invited by the Honduran National Commission for Human Rights to attend the fourth annual assembly of the FIO, thus establishing a venue for interaction between Taiwan's national human rights organization and its counterparts in Ibero-American nations. Mr. Chao has now attended the FIO annual conference 14 times, effectively promoting the exchange of human rights experiences between Taiwan and FIO member states, remarked the president.
President Ma said that the ROC Constitution emphasizes the protection of human rights. However, after the ROC lost its representation in the United Nations in 1971 it was not able to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights or the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, he noted. Consequently, the president stated, after he took office in 2008 he immediately announced that efforts would be made to quickly ratify these two human rights covenants. He signed the instruments of ratification the following year, and an act to govern their implementation was passed, thus incorporating them into domestic law in order to protect human rights.
President Ma further explained that the government, acting in accordance with the two covenants, has established the Presidential Office Human Rights Consultative Committee. This committee issued Taiwan's first national human rights report in 2012, he said, adding that 10 international human rights experts were invited to Taiwan to review the report. Domestic human rights groups also participated in the review process, critiquing the government's human rights record and providing suggestions for improvement. This move also was applauded by the international experts invited to Taiwan, he stated. Furthermore, the president commented, the government has and continues to undertake reform in response to the 82 suggestions provided by the experts, thus demonstrating its commitment to protecting the human rights of the people of Taiwan.