A Year of Human Rights Covenants: Great Leap for Taiwan
National Human Rights Commission, Taiwan
VII. Strengthening the NHRC’s
human rights education
function
In other words, the NHRC should develop its
The NHRC is advised to conduct an overall
assistance. The “assistant” and “overseer” roles
help government agencies implement human
and complementary relationship. Hence, the
Principles, a national human rights institution shall
rights education plan and assist the government
own professional competencies, including
policy recommendation, engagement in
teaching and teaching materials design, so as to
provide government agencies with professional
assessment and plan comprehensively to
of the NHRC can be considered as a continuous
rights education. In accordance with The Paris
NHRC should oversee the government’s human
assist in the formulation of programmes for the
teaching of, and research into, human rights
and to take part in their execution in schools,
universities and professional circles.
In accordance with the Organic Act, the NHRC
shall have the responsibility of
monitor[ing] the effectiveness of government
agencies in promoting human rights education,
enhancing human rights awareness, and
handling matters involving human rights.
Additionally, Article 9 of the United Nations
Declaration on Human Rights Education and
Training stipulates States should
recognize that national human rights institutions
can play an important role, including, where
necessary, a coordinating role, in promoting
human rights education and training by, inter
alia, raising awareness and mobilizing relevant
public and private actors.
The APF explicitly states that a national human
rights institution should meet the following three
requirements to provide human rights education:
(a) a strategic human rights education plan
supported by sufficient resources;
(b) human rights education workers equipped
with professional competencies; and
(c) effective resources, including education
workers and teaching materials.
in improving services so as to fulfill its human
rights obligations.
VIII. Addressing student human
rights in a multicultural
social environment and
promoting human rights
education in familie
In our research process, student and parent
groups reflected on the many imperfections
of campus student rights implementation, and
recommend the NHRC launch a systemic
investigation, as well as oversee authorities to
draw up improvement plans, addressing the
generally poor student rights compliance in
private schools. Student and parent groups
also pointed out that there were insufficient
interventions and corrections from authorities.
Although existing student grievance systems
are generally comprehensive, students lack
necessary support when filing grievances.
The unfriendliness of the system for students,
particularly the time-consuming grievance
process, can cause troubles. Furthermore,
when a teacher is evaluated, student opinion is
not considered. This deprives students of their
ability to speak up against unqualified teachers.
Additionally, some schools still imposed barriers
National Human Rights Commission 2022 Annual Report
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