Lecture | Call Me by My Indigenous Name: The Pursuit of Justice and Legal Challenges in the Single-Name Indigenous Naming Movement

In recent years, some Indigenous partners have pursued Indigenous rights through "single Indigenous name litigation," demanding that the Ministry of the Interior allow Indigenous peoples to record their names on identification documents solely using Indigenous language romanization systems. They hope that national law will confront the cultural specificity of Indigenous peoples and not restrict their right to determine their names through the Han-centric Name Act. Today, Taiwan has declared through legislation (the Indigenous Languages Development Act and the Development of National Languages Act) that Indigenous languages serve as national languages, and court judgments have also affirmed the legitimacy of the right to single Indigenous names.

However, the Ministry of the Interior has still failed to abolish current administrative interpretations in accordance with the intent of the judgments. Not only does it cite a legal vacuum, claiming that the Legislative Yuan is still deliberating amendments and that current operations must be maintained, but it also rejects other Indigenous peoples' applications for single-name registration on the grounds that favorable judgments are only binding on the litigants and relevant agencies, creating a deadlock in the realization of rights.

To break through the current status quo, this seminar invites litigants of the single Indigenous name litigation, their counsel, and legal scholars to reflect together on the significance and prospects of the single Indigenous name movement from the perspectives of lived experience, social movement, and judicial relief.

Online Registration

Moderator

Ch'en Chao-ju (Distinguished Professor, National Taiwan University College of Law)

Speakers

Yinguyu Yatauyungana (Litigant in the Single Indigenous Name Litigation)
Savungaz Valincinan (Litigant in the Single Indigenous Name Litigation)
Lin Wei-han (Staff Attorney, Legal Aid Foundation Indigenous Legal Service Center)
Lin Ming-hsin (Professor, National Taiwan University College of Law)

Time

April 17 (Wed.) 13:30-16:00

Venue

Multimedia Classroom 1301, Rung-Zen Building, College of Law, National Taiwan University
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* This event offers community service hour credits for undergraduate students and graduation hour credits for master's and doctoral students of the NTU Department of Law

Organizers

Center for Human Rights and Jurisprudence at National Taiwan University College of Law, Taiwan Empirical Legal Database, Judicial Reform Foundation

Co-organizers

Amnesty International Taiwan, Alliance of Indigenous Peoples Youth

Contact

Lin Ch'eng-ch'ing, Legislative Assistant Researcher
kacan@jrf.org.tw
02-2523-1178 #14