Control Yuan President Chang Po-ya, accompanied by CY Members Jane Y. W. Chiang, Chen Hsiao-hung and Lin Sheng-fong, attended the 24th annual conference of the Federación Iberoamericana del Ombudsman (FIO) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Nov. 26-28, 2019. The delegation engaged in discussions on human rights issues with participating ombudsmen from Latin American nations, Spain and Portugal.
The FIO, established in 1995, is the leading platform for cooperation and exchanges among supervisory and human rights institutions in Spanish-speaking countries. Over the past more than two decades, the federation has promoted human rights protection through international collective cooperation. The CY has long maintained good relations with its Latin American counterparts and has participated in the annual FIO conference as an observer since 1999.
This year’s conference, whose theme was “Gender Violence and Equality,” was divided into four sessions on “Gender, Race and Gender Mainstreaming,” “Education and Gender Violence,” “Gender Violence in the Health System,” and “Gender Violence in Different Forms”, inviting representatives of nations and various related international organizations to share their experience. The CY delegates shared two CY investigation cases with the participants, including one regarding an army officer’s sexual harassment and assault of a male soldier over an extended period of time, and the other regarding sexual harassment and assault of students at schools and at welfare institutes for persons with disabilities.
The CY delegation also attended the working group meeting held on the first day of the conference, engaging in discussions and sharing related human rights work experience from an Asian perspective on the issues of women’s rights, immigrants’ rights and human trafficking.
The conference also held a vote to select the new Executive Committee, with Guatemala Human Rights Prosecutor Augusto Jordán Rodas Andrade being chosen to serve as president. Defensorías del Pueblo of Andorra Marc Vilá, Defensorías del Pueblo of Ecuador Freddy Carrión, Sergio Micco from Chile’s Human Rights Commission, and Guanajuato Human Rights Prosecutor José Raúl Montero de Alba were selected to serve as vice presidents.
In addition to attending the annual FIO conference, the CY delegation paid a visit to the European Ombudsman Office in Belgium, exchanging views and experience on supervision and complaints-handling work. They also made an inspection visit to the Taipei representative offices in the Netherlands, the EU and Belgium, as well as met with members of the overseas Taiwanese communities in each of the locations in order to gain a better understanding of the current situation regarding Taiwan’s trade, foreign relations, overseas compatriot, cultural, and other related work.