TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s Cabinet hosted a conference on Wednesday in Taipei to mark Human Rights Day, focusing on the nation’s experience with transitional justice, inviting local experts and international scholars to exchange views, per a press release.
Minister without Portfolio Lin Ming-hsin (林明昕) said in opening remarks that global democracy is facing new challenges, prompting Taiwan to strengthen democratic resilience through international dialogue. Participants from Germany, South Korea, Lithuania, Poland, and the Czech Republic attended the forum.
Lin noted that the United Nations designated Dec. 10 as International Human Rights Day in 1950, a time when Taiwan was entering a decades-long period of martial law and the White Terror. Countless human rights violations and government oppression created an atmosphere of silence and fear, he said.
Half a century later, Taiwan ranks second in Asia for freedom among 195 countries, according to Freedom House’s 2025 Global Freedom Report, underscoring the nation’s democratic resilience.
Lin said the UN framework for transitional justice includes five key areas: truth, justice, redress, guarantees of non-recurrence, and remembrance. Since the passage of the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice in 2017, Taiwan has continued to advance related initiatives.
He said this year the Cabinet completed several major policy plans, including the Key Policy Initiatives for the Transitional Justice Phase, the Strategic Plan for the Transitional Justice Fund, the Strategic Plan for the Preservation of Sites of Injustice, and the Strengthening Plan for Transitional Justice for Indigenous Peoples. Lin said these efforts align with the UN’s holistic approach to transitional justice.
Lin emphasized that international experience shows silence is not an option when confronting past injustices. Only through reflection, learning, and systemic reform can societies prevent the recurrence of tragedies, he said.
He added that many countries emerging from authoritarian rule after World War II have taken different paths to address similar challenges. Spain’s democratic transition, Germany’s culture of reflection, South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Lithuania’s social mechanisms to address trauma, and Poland’s oral history projects all offer useful lessons for Taiwan, Lin said.
He thanked guests for their participation and said Taiwan, as a committed partner in global human rights and democratic values, hopes to use its transitional justice experience to help restore missing pieces in the global human rights landscape.
The Cabinet’s Department of Human Rights and Transitional Justice said the conference provided a platform for engaging with other countries on transitional justice policies and systems. It said turnout was strong, bringing together domestic and international scholars, government agencies, political victims and their families, NGOs, and youth groups, reflecting broad civil society support for transitional justice.
