Civil Society Continues to Call for a Separate National Human Rights Commission Powers Exercise Act

On August 9, Covenants Watch and its member organizations held a press conference titled "Stretched Thin and Caught in the Middle-One Year of the National Human Rights Commission." Civil society organizations argued that the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) should have a clear division of responsibilities from the Control Yuan and exercise its powers independently, consistent with public expectations for an independent national human rights institution. One of their core demands was that the Legislative Yuan enact a separate National Human Rights Commission Powers Exercise Act.

The Control Yuan subsequently convened three meetings on proposed amendments that would place the NHRC's powers in a new Chapter 5-1 of the Control Act. To help ensure consistency with the Paris Principles, Huang Sung-Li, convener of Covenants Watch, participated as an NHRC adviser. At the meetings, Covenants Watch repeatedly reminded Vice Chairperson Chao Yung-Ching, who chaired the discussions, that civil society expected a separate National Human Rights Commission Powers Exercise Act. When NHRC Chairperson Chen Chu attended the third meeting, the Coalition presented the same recommendation directly. The Control Yuan relied on an accompanying resolution adopted by the Legislative Yuan in late 2019 when it enacted the Organic Act of the Control Yuan National Human Rights Commission; that resolution called on the Control Yuan to propose amendments to the Control Act as the NHRC's functional legislation. Covenants Watch responded that the NHRC was not yet fully understood at the time and urged Chairperson Chen to continue communicating with the Legislative Yuan in support of a separate powers-exercise act. Chen replied, "We have not given up on that goal."

After learning that the NHRC would communicate with the Legislative Yuan about the amendments, Covenants Watch and the co-signing organizations reiterated the following position:

1. The NHRC and the Control Yuan have fundamentally different missions and powers, and therefore exercise authority for different purposes and in different ways. The NHRC must operate differently from the Control Yuan if it is to perform its functions effectively. The Control Act is built around unlawful conduct or dereliction of duty by public officials; Control Yuan Members investigate in order to exercise powers such as impeachment and censure. Although NHRC members concurrently serve as Control Yuan Members, the exercise of NHRC powers does not depend on wrongdoing by public officials and is not directed against particular public servants; its purpose includes making policy recommendations. The NHRC's functions are therefore fundamentally different from those governed by the Control Act, and placing them in the same statute would continue to blur the distinction between the two institutions.
2. A separate statute governing the NHRC's exercise of powers has two important functions: internally, it would provide a clear basis for allocating responsibilities between the Control Yuan and the NHRC; externally, it would give society a clearer understanding of what the NHRC is and what it can be expected to do.
3. The current amendment proposal has already removed two controversial provisions from the previous year-the NHRC's proposed power to petition for constitutional interpretation and its proposed power to fine nongovernmental organizations that failed to cooperate with investigations-and has been revised in light of the Paris Principles to define the NHRC's powers more clearly. This should be treated as an opportunity to help the Legislative Yuan better understand and approve an appropriate scope of authority for the NHRC.
4. Amending the Control Act at this stage instead of enacting a separate National Human Rights Commission Powers Exercise Act would continue to leave the NHRC's functions obscured beneath the Control Yuan and would provide little substantive benefit to Taiwan's human-rights development.

At this critical point in the legislative process, we urge the Legislative Yuan and the NHRC to consult broadly. More importantly, the Legislative Yuan should understand the fundamental differences between the missions and powers of the NHRC and the Control Yuan and consider how to give the NHRC independent authority consistent with the expectations for an independent institution and the internationally recognized Paris Principles. This is an opportunity to move Taiwan's human-rights work another step forward.

Co-signing Organizations

Covenants Watch
Taiwan Association for Human Rights
Taiwan Indigenous Peoples Policy Association
Taiwan Association for Innocence
Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty
Judicial Reform Foundation
Human Rights Network for Tibet and Taiwan