Today, human rights are universal. In order to realize the protection of our nation’s human rights and align them with international standards, the Legislative Yuan, firstly on March 31, 2009, passed the “International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights” and the “International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights” (referred to below as “the two covenants”) and passed the Act to implement the two covenants. Secondly on May 20, 2011, the “Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women” (CEDAW) was approved and enacted in 2012. On May 20 and August 1 of 2014, the “Convention on the Rights of the Child” (enacted on November 20, 2014) and the “Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities” (enacted on December 3, 2014) were approved, respectively. Current and future work on improving human rights has become essential for all levels of government organizations.
According to its independent powers granted by the five-power system, the Control Yuan, which supervises all the levels of government, is by nature tasked with the mission of protecting human rights. Among the people’s complaints and actual investigations handled, most of them are related to human rights. In order to enhance the function of protecting human rights and to establish an NHRI that complies with the "Paris Principles," the Control Yuan proposed the "Organic Act of the Control Yuan National Human Rights Commission" and amended Paragraph 7, Article 3-1 of the "Organic Law of the Control Yuan" concerning the qualifications of its Members with professional background in human rights. The Legislative Yuan passed the law and the amendment on December 10, 2019 and the ROC President promulgated them on January 8, 2020, marking a milestone and opening up a brand new era in the promotion and protection of human rights in Taiwan.