Human Rights Education: Soochow University, Taipei
Chang Fo-chuan Center for the Study of Human Rights

Beginning in 1995, several faculty members of the Political ScienceDepartment at Soochow University took upon themselves to offer courses in the human rights field, both at the undergraduate
and graduate levels. They also collaborated with colleagues in Yang-ming
Medical College (now the National Yang-ming University) and Taipei
Municipal Teacher’s College (now the Taipei Municipal University ofEducation) in training teachers and compiling teaching materials for primary and secondary schools. In 1998, an International Conference on HumanRights Education was held in Taipei, and scholars and experts from the US,
Europe and Japan gathered together to discuss the strengthening of humanrights education in Taiwan.
The Chang Fo-chuan Center for the Study of Human Rights
The Chang Fo-chuan Center for the Study of Human Rights was founded in2001, the first human rights research institute in Taiwan. It aims at the promotion of human rights education and the establishment of a human rights
culture, notably through:• Promoting human rights research in Taiwan, integrating humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, as well as practical arts
such as public health and social work, in an interdisciplinaryapproach.
• Advancing human rights education, first by offering courses in international protection of human rights, women’s rights, rights of
the indigenous peoples, etc. in the Political Science Department,
and proceeding to set up the undergraduate human rights program(2004) and MA degree program in human rights (2008).
• Training human rights non-governmental organization (ngo)workers by setting up workshops and seminars. Through the years
the Center has cooperated with many human rights ngos in spon-147

148

•

H u m a n R i g h t s E d u c at i o n i n A s i a - Pa c i f i csoring workshops and summer camps for both human rights workers and university students.
Contributing to international exchange by holding international
conferences in Taipei and encouraging faculty members and students to attend conferences abroad and work with internationalngos.

The Undergraduate Human Rights Program
The Undergraduate Human Rights Program was set up in 2004. It is designed for students from diverse disciplines and backgrounds. The students
must complete twenty-four credit hours before they are awarded a certification. They are encouraged to take part in internships working with humanrights ngos. The program is interdisciplinary, emphasizing the integrationof theory and practice. The core courses are human rights philosophy, thehistory of human rights thought, and international human rights law. The
elective courses include art and literature, social sciences, law and policy, as
well as environmental studies and public health. The faculty is drawn fromSoochow University, National Taiwan University, Fu Jen University, Yang
Ming University, Taipei Municipal University of Education and Academia
Sinica, as well as practicing human rights lawyers and ngo leaders. So far
more than two hundred students have participated in this program, andover fifty some have earned their certificate. Many of our students went on
to work for the ngos, after their graduation from the university.
MA Degree in Human Rights
Based on the experiences of Chang Fo-chuan Center for the Study of HumanRights and the undergraduate Human Rights Program, the MA degree program in Human Rights was set up in 2008, aiming at the further promotionof human rights education and practical training for government officials
and ngo workers. It is the first and only MA degree program in this field in
Taiwan. The basic idea of the program is similar to that of the undergraduate
human rights program, emphasizing the integration of theory and practice,incorporating both civil and political rights on the one hand and economic
and social rights on the other. Well-known courses include human rights
philosophy, the right to health and the protection of environment, etc. It isHuman Rights Education: Soochow University, Taipei

149

mandated that students must complete twenty-four credit hours of courses, including three credit hours in internship and the submission of a MAthesis.
The students come from many universities and colleges in Taiwan, withdiverse backgrounds and training, including students in arts and theater,law, environment, and journalism. At this time, there are about thirty students in the program, and five students have graduated from the program.
Human Rights Journal: Taiwan Human Rights Journal
After over a year of discussion and debate, the Chang Fo-chuan Center for
the Study of Human Rights at Soochow University, Taipei has decided tolaunch a human rights journal. Since the mid-1980s, Taiwan has witnesseda process of democratization. Civil society has been rejuvenated, and ngos,
including human rights organizations, have become more robust. More andmore scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds, such as law, sociology, philosophy, politics, public health and anthropology, etc, have begun toengage in research and teaching in the field of human rights. Plainly, humanrights research and pedagogy has emerged as a new academic discipline inTaiwan. However, there is as yet no academic journal for human rights studies. Our journal is designed to fill this gap.
We envision a journal of the highest standard; balancing theoretical andpractical perspectives; drawing upon different disciplines, including law, sociology, philosophy, politics, public health and anthropology, etc; and addressing concrete issues confronting society. Generally speaking, every issue will have a special feature consisting of a cluster of three or four articles.
For example, the inaugural issue will feature three articles dealing with different aspects of Taiwan’s implementation of the International Bill of Rights(the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights). There will also be research notes, notes from thefield, and book review essays.
Although the Journal is published and managed by the Chang Fo-chuan
Center for the Study of Human Rights, it rightly belongs to the academic
community and human rights NGOs in Taiwan as a whole. It is our sincere wish that in due time it will become a valuable shared resource for theChinese-speaking communities in different parts of the world.

150

H u m a n R i g h t s E d u c at i o n i n A s i a - Pa c i f i c

Human Rights Dictionary1
The idea of a glossary that compared the Taiwan human rights record
against international standards would be useful for promoting the understanding of human rights in Taiwan was first proposed in 2003. The dictionary subsequently evolved over a period of several years. It soon became
clear, however, that for our purposes a broader reach of human rights concepts, events, phenomena, and laws needed to be included, and so we set
out to create a far more elaborate volume. It was later decided to includesections on Mainland China and Hong Kong in the volume so that it would
be useful to the entire Chinese-speaking community and for international
scholars of comparative human rights. These two sections were written in2006. This dictionary is thus comprised of four parts. The large international
section is a compendium of universal human rights principles, laws, methods, institutions, and issues. This is followed by the three area sections, inwhich these jurisdictions are analyzed in terms of the standards or benchmarks in “International section.”
The reader will quickly notice that each section has its own character.
This reflects in part the different origins of the various sections, and also thedifferent situations in the three areas. Taiwan thus focuses on events, institutions, and people who have played an important role in the sudden anddramatic realization of human rights on the island during the 1990s. The
Mainland China section has a strong political focus, reflecting this area's inchoate state of human rights development. The Hong Kong section reflects
the fact that under British administration, human rights became reasonably
well established in the law, and the focus is now on preventing their erosion and expanding rights in new directions. Thus the Hong Kong section
has a strong legalistic bent. There was no effort to apply all the concepts ofthe “International” section to the three jurisdictions, which have a relatively
narrow focus.
International Conferences
The Chang Fo-chuan Center for the Study of Human Rights has been holding international conferences since its establishment in 2001. It held conferences on various topics including the following:• National Human Rights Commissions (2001)

Human Rights Education: Soochow University, Taipei•••••••••151

Literature and Social Justice (2002)
Indigenous Rights (2003)
Human Rights Education (2004)
Human Rights Education in a Diverse and Changing Asia (2006)
Civics and Human Rights Education in Asia (2009)
Propagation and Implementation of the Idea of Human Rights(2010)
International Human Rights Covenants (2011)
International Conference of Restorative Justice, Human Rights andPeace Education (March 2012)
East Asia Symposium: Legislation and the Developing Asylum
Policy in East Asia Responding to Forced Migration and Human
Trafficking (October 2012).

Human Rights Week
The Chang Fo-chuan Center for the Study of Human Rights holds theHuman Rights Week each year since 2004. It adopted a particular theme foreach year, as in the following:• Defending Tenzin Delek of Tibet (2004)• Migrant Workers are not Slaves (2005)• Free Burma (2006)• Genocide in Darfur (2007)• The 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (2008)• The Suppressed Voices in China: Rights Defending, Tibet andUyghur (2009)• Anti-death Penalty Poster Exhibition, Music and films festival(2010).
Study Group and Mini-courses
In addition to conferences, Chang Fo-chuan Center for the Study of Human
Rights holds study group sessions and mini-courses. The study group sessions have been held annually with topics ranging from discussion of humanrights in relation to constitutionalism to discussion of theories of democracy and public reasoning. The mini-courses, on the other hand, took up

152

H u m a n R i g h t s E d u c at i o n i n A s i a - Pa c i f i cissues ranging from general human rights concepts to specific human rights
issues to national human rights mechanism. See Annex for the list of topics
taken up in the study group and mini-course topics.
Final Note
Looking back on the past fifteen years, it can only be said that the Centerand the human rights programs, both the undergraduate and graduate,
are still in the beginning stage of development and growth. They can bestrengthened and expanded. The support and encouragement of the larger
society definitely will play an important role, while the efforts of everyone
at the Center and the programs, including the students, are indispensable.

Human Rights Education: Soochow University, Taipei

153

Annex 1
Study Group Topics• Human Rights and Constitutionalism: Immanuel Kant, CarlosNino (2003)• Evil and Punishment of Human Rights Violation: Hannah Arendt,
Carlos Nino (2004)• The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission:
Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu, Nelson Mandela, Commission’s
Final Report, Antjie Krog (2005)• Radical Evil: Richard Bernstein (2006).
• Development, Poverty and the Capability Approach: Amartya Sen,
Martha Nussbaum (2007)• Globalization, Development and the Rights of the Disadvantaged:
David Held, Joseph Stiglitz, Jeffrey Sachs, Peter Singer (2008)• Global Poverty and Theories of Justice: Thomas Pogge, AmartyaSen (2009)• Theories of Democracy and Public Reasoning: John Rawls, Amartya
Sen and Ronald Dworkin (2010).
Mini Courses• Prof. Theo van Boven, Maastricht University, the Netherlands.
“International Human Rights Law: Concepts, Mechanism and thePractice” (2007)• Prof. Ian Neary, University of Oxford, UK. “The Rights of theChildren and Patients in Taiwan, Japan and South Korea” (2008)• Prof. Flora Arellano, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, ThePhilippines. “Child Labor and Child Sex Workers in the Philippines”(2009)• Prof. Zang Boshu, Independent Chinese Scholar, China. “TheConstitutional Reform and Transition to a Democratic Society inChina” (2010)• Prof. Bill Black, the University of British Columbia, Canada.
“Canadian Legal System and the Two International Human Rights
Covenants” (2010)• Prof. Theodore S. Orlin, Utica College, usa. “Responsibility toProtect (R2P): An Evolving Principle of International Law” (2011)

154

H u m a n R i g h t s E d u c at i o n i n A s i a - Pa c i f i c•

Dr. Alessandro Amicarelli, Italy. “Human Rights, Minorities andReligious Freedom” (2012).

Endnotes1
Human Rights Dictionary - International, Mainland China Hong Kong, andTaiwan (Bilingual). Professor Mab Huang was the editor-in-chief, and Professors
Theodore Orlin, James Seymour, Daniel Yu were the editors. It was published inTaipei in 2007.