A series of events occurred in December of 2012 that brought human rights to the center of public attention.

On December 18, the government released its English-language versions of the reports on implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. Then on December 21, the government carried out the executions of six death row inmates, following which international human rights groups once again called on Taiwan to abolish the death penalty.

Unexpectedly, there was a powerful counter-reaction in Taiwanese society, which has always gladly welcomed the progressive ideas of international human rights. Many argued that international human rights organizations were failing to respect Taiwan’s local conditions and culture, and to take into account the feelings of its people.

This reaction was due in part to a terrible incident that had happened in early December. In Tainan City, a man murdered a child at random, and after being arrested he declared “you won’t get the death penalty in Taiwan just for killing one or two people.” He openly boasted that his whole intention was to kill someone so that the state would take care of him for the rest of his life. The case sent a shockwave through society, so that few people were in the mood to heed the views of foreign organizations when the debate over capital punishment was revived by the December executions.

In recent years social activists in Taiwan have been appealing more and more to the language of “human rights.”

With the exception of the death penalty, for a long time now Taiwan has pretty much accepted the full menu of universal human rights. Although Taiwan is not a member of the UN, the government here has attempted to keep pace with international standards in terms of human rights legislation and social welfare policy. In 2009 Taiwan even formally incorporated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights into domestic law.

And it is not only the government which is active in this respect. The debate over abolition of capital punishment, to take just one example, reflects the vitality of human rights discourse and activism in Taiwan’s society as a whole. Even a cursory look at some of the major news stories of 2012 shows the extent to which people here have vigorously embraced the concept of “basic rights.”

January: As controversy continues to rage over the unrestrained expansion of businesses into residential areas in the Shida commercial district, local homeowners complain that their “residential rights” are being trampled. Shop owners, who argue that they are being put out of business without justification and that their contributions to neighborhood prosperity are being undervalued, phrase their arguments in terms of a “right to do business.” Commentators who are concerned that Tai­pei’s dynamic night-market culture is under attack opine that the area enjoys a “right to cultural preservation.”

March: Writer and legislator Chang Show-foong mentions in the Legislative Yuan that many men in Taiwan are marrying foreign spouses, and calls on the government to create an environment more conducive to marriage for local women. Though her remarks are well intentioned, many single women are offended, and women’s groups issue a declaration saying that Chang has failed to recognize the “right to individual choice with regard to marriage.”

September: Taiwan is buffeted by the Euro crisis, and economic growth plunges to a new nadir. While the government urgently seeks solutions, some private firms take the opportunity to call for the delinking of the minimum wage for foreign laborers from that of local workers in order to lower costs for the manufacturing sector. Workers’ groups protest that delinking would undermine the “right to work” and would amount to “discrimination” against foreign workers. The controversy finally subsides when the Executive Yuan announces that the government has no intention to delink.

November: The 10th LGBT Pride Parade takes place with a theme of “equal marriage rights.” Advocacy groups call for legalization of marriage between homosexuals, and a record 70,000 people take part. Afterwards, the online edition of the New York Times, noting that the Legislative Yuan in 2012 held the first-ever public hearings on gay marriage, says that Taiwan is leading the way in Asia toward equal marriage rights.

In recent years social activists in Taiwan have been appealing more and more to the language of “human rights.”

Taiwan is today a land where all issues are on the table, and a variety of interest groups are consciously struggling to secure their “rights.” Indeed, says Bruce Yuan-hao Liao, an associate professor of law at National Chengchi University and a member of the Presidential Office Human Rights Consultative Committee, human rights has become the common thread linking all protest activities in Taiwan in recent years. There are three main reasons for this.

First, social activists have adopted human rights for strategic reasons, packaging their demands in a fresher and more up-to-date way. Taiwan experienced its first wave of social activism, on behalf of women, children, the environment, and other issues, in the years just before the lifting of martial law (1987) and during the period of political reform that followed; at that time these movements all fell under the umbrella of “anti-authoritarianism.” However, now that Taiwan has democratized and passed through two transitions of power through free and fair elections, that old unifying thread has disappeared. In its place, advocacy of human rights has become the new axis for civic activists.

Secondly, when disputes arise, all parties are anxious to portray themselves as the victims, and people pursuing their own interests who invoke “human rights” instantly become seen as “disadvantaged” and “victimized.” It’s like having a magic wand that means you are entitled to protection.

Finally, focusing on human rights allows social groups to steer clear of party politics and maintain transcendence. For example, if you look at the activists mobilized during the dispute over the closing of the Losheng Sanatorium, or groups working on behalf of immigrants or homosexuals, none have worked under or on behalf of any political parties.

“Human rights are different from democratic politics. Democracy is about making decisions by counting heads, whereas the point of departure for human rights is in protecting minorities, the marginalized, and the disadvantaged,” says Liao.

In recent years social activists in Taiwan have been appealing more and more to the language of “human rights.”

There has also been a shift in the most attention-grabbing issues in the human rights discourse. In the late 1980s, a lot of attention was devoted to women’s and children’s issues, because there was a broad consensus in society about them and the government adopted relevant legislation promptly. In recent years these issues have thus dropped out of the center of the human rights debate, and in some respects Taiwan is even ahead of the international curve on them.

Take for example the rights of children. Taiwan ranks at or near the top of the international community in school matriculation rates and inoculation rates. In fact, Taiwan’s first-ever social welfare law, passed in 1973, was the Child Welfare Law. It introduced the principle that “children are not the personal property of the parents.”

This law has gone through two major revisions over the last four decades. In 1993, it incorporated issues related to child abuse and child neglect, and the general public began to widely recognize the need to protect children in such situations. Today, it is the norm for neighbors of children who are being abused or who are left cold and hungry to report the parents so that the authorities can intervene.

In 2011 the Child Welfare Law was revised again and renamed the Protection of Children and Youths Welfare and Rights Act. The revised legislation puts special emphasis on guaranteeing the rights and interests of children and young people through pro-active preventive measures, such as early identification of high-risk families, rather than on simply passively responding to problems. The focus is now on improving the overall family environment to stop child abuse and neglect before it ever occurs.

“There has been a big increase in our society in reported cases of physical or sexual abuse of children,” notes Pong Su-hwa, a professor in the Graduate Institute of Social Work at National Taiwan Normal University, “but most people understand that this indicates progress, not deterioration, in the situation, because the high level of reporting reflects the correspondingly high level of concern now focused on children’s well-being.”

Taiwan has also made rapid progress on women’s issues, achieving equality on a variety of questions including a married woman’s right to choose her own domicile, surnames for children, and the right of a married woman to keep property in her own name. In fact, these days it is men who are getting new attention, as novel problems—how social welfare groups can help single fathers, how men can take paternity leave without affecting their career path—have arisen.

In recent years social activists in Taiwan have been appealing more and more to the language of “human rights.”

As the state machinery is no longer being used to suppress human rights, many in Taiwan are coming to the realization that the greatest threat to others’ human rights comes from their own selves.

In November of 2012 the United Daily News published a series of articles under the heading “Watch Out! You May Be Biased!” The paper did in-depth reports, including large-scale quantitative surveys of public opinion as well as qualitative interviews with concerned individuals, on five major themes: the elderly, the unmarried, homosexuals, the obese, and ethnicity. The series has been called the most courageous systematic exposure of our society done by the mainstream media in recent years.

UDN National News Center deputy national editor Esther Yu-fang Liang, who oversaw the project, says that the purpose was to provoke Taiwanese into seeing that behind the façade of an open-minded and progressive society, many people have severe blind spots.

“Why is it that Taiwanese refer to a foreigner with pale skin as a laowai [a friendly term meaning something like “that ol’ foreigner”], but one with brown skin as a wailao [“that foreign worker,” especially meaning a servant or manual laborer]? Taiwanese are very proud of the traditional notion of ‘respecting the elderly,’ but why is it nearly impossible for someone over 70 to rent an apartment?” Liang says that Taiwanese society is characterized by a contradiction—a high degree of sympathy for people who are shown in the media to suffer from discrimination, but low self-awareness of their own personal prejudices.

By way of example she cites public attitudes toward homosexuals. A very high percentage of Taiwanese, 55%, support legalization of same-sex marriage. But 61% say that they would be unable to accept their own child being gay or lesbian.

“At first the editorial desk was worried that reports like this would offend readers, but in fact the response was very enthusiastic, and some readers hope that we will go further now and do stories on stereotypes and prejudice against Hakkas and second-generation mainlanders,” says Esther Liang. The response, she concludes, shows that Taiwanese are willing to face up to their hidden biases and change for the better.

Transnational marriages are becoming increasingly common. The children of these unions will grow up with a more international, culturally diverse outlook.

In recent years, social groups in Taiwan have begun to shift their main strategic target toward eliminating prejudice in society. They hope to reach people on an emotional level through action, rather than merely reaching them on an intellectual level through words, so that society will become more self-aware of their own thoughts, and therefore more empathetic to the atmosphere these create for others.

United Way Taiwan sponsored an activity in which bus drivers could experience what it is like to be elderly. Participating drivers were dressed in tight clothing to hamper their mobility and simulate the halting movements of an 80-year-old, moving slowly and awkwardly to climb the steps onto the bus, and struggling to stay upright as the bus weaves and turns.

The event produced heartwarming results. In its wake, more and more stories circulated on the Internet of one bus driver helping an elderly lady off the bus, another taking the time to make sure an elderly man correctly transferred to his next bus.... “We didn’t lecture bus drivers on the importance of respecting the elderly, but just created the opportunity for them to come up with their own ideas through personal experience,” says Chou Wen-chen, former director of United Way Taiwan and currently CEO at the Bjorgaas Foundation.

Social welfare groups are also undertaking projects to bridge the gap between people of different cultures. Take for example the terminology used to describe women from poorer countries who come to Taiwan for arranged marriages with Taiwanese men. Early on they were called “foreign brides,” but over time the term has evolved to “foreign spouses,” then “new immigrants,” and now “new residents.” The emphasis now is on “cross-cultural families.” It’s no longer simply a matter of “you have migrated into my culture,” but “let’s meld your culture and my culture together.”

The government moved quickly to fully implement the creation of an “obstacle-free environment” for the handicapped. A seeing-eye dog in the subway is now a normal part of the urban landscape in Taipei City.

The idea of human rights evolved in the West in a clear historical line from the “divine right of kings” through “the rights of the nobility” to rights for all. But the main traditions in Taiwanese culture have been on social ethics and family responsibility. Inevitably, application of concepts that originated elsewhere will sometimes amount to trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

“Taiwan has been very proud of its accomplishments in terms of democratization, and hopes that the international community will sit up and take notice of measures adopted here to secure human rights. However, once people get accustomed to just accepting Western ideas in toto, the counter-reaction will be all the more powerful when these strike a nerve on some sensitive issue,” says Bruce Yuan-hao Liao. Recently the European Community criticized Taiwan for executing several criminals on death row, which touched a sore spot with many Taiwanese. Questions are now being raised: Who decides what human rights are? Why can’t Taiwan have its own standards?

Liao points to the example of the US. Though some states have abolished the death penalty, public support for it remains strong in many others, and it is frequently used in some of these states. At the federal level it also remains on the books, and though it is rarely used, there would certainly be an electoral backlash against any presidential candidate who advocated eliminating capital punishment entirely. The US experience has been that states have gradually abolished capital punishment one by one, while at the federal level the scope of its application has been steadily narrowed. Similarly, in Taiwan it will take time to build a consensus, and in the meantime the government cannot simply tell voters that they have no choice but to accept the wholesale elimination of the death penalty.

In a democratic society, it is unacceptable to compel people to accept ideas on which there is no consensus. This is not to say that nothing can be changed, but rather that change must come through gradual persuasion. After all, isn’t respect for others exactly what human rights are all about?

In recent years social activists in Taiwan have been appealing more and more to the language of “human rights.”

As Taiwan’s society ages, there is a consensus that people should be able to enjoy pleasant and rich lives in their golden years.

In recent years social activists in Taiwan have been appealing more and more to the language of “human rights.”

In recent years social activists in Taiwan have been appealing more and more to the language of “human rights.”