President Ma Ying-jeou has spoken at two events marking International Human Rights Day. In his remarks, Ma addressed human rights abuses in Taiwan’s past and current efforts to combat human trafficking.
At an event organized by the Preparatory Office of the National Human Rights Museum on Thursday, Ma said that he had come to express his respects to those who faced political persecution for the sake of democracy in Taiwan.
Ma said that protecting human rights is an important duty of government. He said that because of this duty, he has allowed the incorporation of the UN’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights into Taiwan’s domestic law.
President Ma said that the government has also worked to bring comfort to victims of the 228 Incident and the White Terror period that followed. Ma said that talking about history truthfully and showing empathy towards the victims of state violence are the only ways to heal historical wounds.
The president also attended the awards ceremony for the 10th Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award on Thursday. This year’s award went to Nepali women’s rights activist Sunita Danuwar, who is a founder of Shakti Samuha, an NGO that fights against human trafficking.
Ma said that Taiwan is willing to cooperate with the international community to destroy human trafficking organizations. He said that Taiwan’s efforts to prevent child prostitution have been commended overseas. However, he also said that the fact that awards are still given to those fighting the sexual exploitation of children shows that the issue has not been solved.