From the Executive Secretary Our Challenges and Breakthroughs “Even if I cannot work for the whole six-year term with members of the NHRC’s first cohort, as soon as a functioning structure has been built, we can at least break free from the current predicament.” As the highest-level human rights institution in Taiwan, the NHRC has comprehensive powers and functions and has been receiving assistance from all walks of society at home and abroad since our inception. We are well aware of the need to step up and forge ahead. Through this report, we hope our readers will understand more about the operation of the NHRC and the foci of our work over the past one and a half years. Over my civil service career of more than forty years, accepting the position of the NHRC’s executive secretary was the toughest decision I have ever made. In January 2022 I came to the NHRC with a sense of unease: its unclear role, ill-defined responsibilities, and lack of an agreement upon working procedure worried me most. I was wondering if I could improve its work routine by drawing upon my past experience with other agencies. This is also the challenge I gave myself before retirement. My first task was to tackle the administrative procedure of the NHRC within the Control Yuan ( 監察 院 ) . Based on my experience, I was well aware of the tension, contradictions, and even conflicts between new and existing units. Through the concerted efforts with all the division chiefs, we found the problems and resolved the bottlenecks in time. By 2022 we could handle more tasks than in the previous year. I am grateful to the Control Yuan for its tolerance and support for me. I firmly believe that after my retirement at the beginning of the next year, the administrative units of both the NHRC and the Control Yuan will perform better through sincere cooperation. While COVID-19 was not yet completely subsided in 2022, Taiwan held review meetings on the national reports of five human rights covenants in quick succession. To improve the local review mechanism, we spent nearly 80% of our workforce and time on completing the independent reviews of the national reports of the five human rights covenants. In addition, we participated in the process of the new constitutional court for the first time in accordance with the Constitutional Court Procedure Act so that international human rights standards would be incorporated into Taiwan’s judicial system. The NHRC also kept track of the human rights situation of vulnerable and disadvantageous groups. So far we have embarked on six human rights projects. In 2022 we completed the preliminary reports on the human rights of persons with disabilities in workplace and 08 National Human Rights Commission 2022 Annual Report