In international liaison and cooperation, we have signed the agreement with the Expertise France and the French Office in Taipei (Bureau Français de Taipei) and invited the French human rights advisor to give us professional advice. Furthermore, on December 10, 2022, the Human Rights Day, I led a delegation to France and Germany to visit their human rights institutions. We were also invited to share our experience and progress in human rights promotion at the Institute of France (Institut de France) and the Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid (Ausschuss für Menschenrechte und humanitäre Hilfe) of the German Parliament (Deutscher Bundestag). These international exchanges and collaborations on human rights affairs were all unprecedented to Taiwan. Although deliberation on the “special chapter on the NHRC’s powers and functions” is still pending in the Legislative Yuan, by formulating internal rules and regulations, we also have progressively reached consensus through repeated discussions, evaluations and revisions so that Commissioners from various backgrounds and staff can move forward together. However imperfect and bumpy the process might have been, I believe these trials and errors were indispensable for working as a team. I have participated in Taiwan’s democratic movement since the 1970s. Having been jailed for six years as a political prisoner, I worked with various civil social organizations. When I became a government official, both in the central and local governments, I continued to uphold my faith in human rights, advocating labor human rights, gender equality and environmental protection. I was deeply moved and echo a Latin American poet that my most ardent wish is when the doorbell rings in the morning, it is the milkman instead of secret agents coming for me. Now democratization has been completed in Taiwan, and the fear of the White Terror is long gone. Taiwan has been ranked top in various human rights fields among Asian communities. To keep up with the rapid social development, however, we also need to confront the challenges from emerging human rights issues, such as the right to privacy by digital technology, the unfavorable impact of climate change, ethnic discrimination arising from social diversity, and others. We need the NHRC to protect our human rights, taking an independent, professional, and objective perspective. I would like to thank all my colleagues for their persistent efforts. We are a groundbreaking agency with new and difficult tasks assigned to us. Granted it is challenging, frustrating and unrewarding, we can turn it around using this opportunity to construct a human rights regime. The NHRC has been advancing slowly over the past three years, I believe that our efforts will bear fruit and I am looking forward to continuously working with all of you. Chairperson National Human Rights Commission 2022 Annual Report 07