After the GMD had in 1979 supported the establishment of a human rights organization (see the Introduction to Text 45), the political opposition also decided to set up its own organization. In 1984, the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, led by pro-independence activists, was established. This organization at first encountered considerable difficulties from governmental authorities, and was officially registered only in 1995. Nonetheless, after martial law was lifted in 1987, political organizing and human rights activism flourished, helping to push Taiwan toward democracy. By the 1990s, the GMD government began to acknowledge past human rights violations, leading it to establish a human rights monument on Green Island, where political prisoners had been imprisoned, on December 10, 1999, and to apologize to all those who had suffered during the White Terror. New laws have also been passed that allow for compensation to these victims. However, concern about continuing human rights violations, coupled with the fact that since it lost its seat in the UN to the PRC in 1971, Taiwan has stood outside the UN human rights system, have led people in Taiwan to continue their struggle for human rights. After years of discussions, twenty-two NGOs formed a coalition in December of 1999 to take advantage of the upcoming presidential election and push the issue of human rights. They advocate the establishment of a National Human Rights Commission, the draft proposal for which we translate here.
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