I. Preamble
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is an independent body
dedicated to the protection and promotion of human rights. It was
established pursuant to the Organic Act of the Control Yuan National
Human Rights Commission announced on January 8, 2020 and was
launched on August 1 of the same year.
The NHRC’s legislative mandates include providing independent opinions
on national reports on human rights conventions to ensure that domestic
laws and administrative measures are in accordance with international
human rights instruments. On November 19, 2021, the Executive Yuan
submitted the Second Report on the Convention on the Rights of the Child
(CRC) pursuant to the Implementation Act of the Convention on the Rights
of the Child. In order to collect opinions from children and civil society
organizations as an important basis for preparing independent opinions,
NHRC dispatched 3 members with practical experience in the field of
children and youths to hold 4 regional children's forums in northern,
central, southern, and eastern Taiwan between September and November
2021, which were attended by a total of 92 children and youths. The
Commission also held 5 focus group discussions, each of which focused
on a different topic (including labor, disabilities, students, minorities, and
children's digital rights), with 72 representatives in total in attendance.
In addition, the NHRC requested 14 government agencies, including the
Legislative Yuan, the Judicial Yuan, the Executive Yuan's Environmental
Protection Administration, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the MOE,
the Ministry of Interior, the MOJ, the MOL, the Ministry of Transportation
and Communications, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of
Culture, the NCC, the National Council of Indigenous People, and the
Mainland Affairs Council, to provide written explanations and statistical
information on the inadequacies and matters that need clarifying in the
Second Report on the CRC. After the opinions provided by children
representatives and civil society organizations during the regional forums
and focus group discussions were compiled and compared to actual
implementation of the Government, these agencies were invited to attend
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