Abstract

Persons with disabilities are one of the largest minorities in Taiwan. There are approximately one million and seventeen thousand disabled persons in Taiwan, out of a total population of twenty-three million. Do you know who has the guts to protect the rights of persons with disabilities? Taiwan.

Taiwan is not a member of the United Nations, but they are willing to take upon themselves the responsibility of promoting and protecting human rights for all. In August 2014, Taiwan’s legislature passed an act to implement the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. How did it work? Where did they submit our Government Report? How has the Report been reviewed? How did they work with our government? All of these questions will be answered during the talk.

Civil society and Disabled Persons Organizations (DPOs) are extremely active in Taiwan. By working closely with the government they play a very important role, ensuring disabled persons have the same opportunities for inclusion as able persons. In addition to exerting external pressure through methods such as protests, parades and lobbying Legislators, they also negotiate with the government and monitor the governments’ progress. How did DPOs and civil society do before and after passed CRPD?

Short biography

Co-founder of the Taiwan Association for Disability Rights (TADR), Huei-mei Grace Chang now serves as : Women Protection and Gender Equality Committee(WPGEC) under TADR. Thanks to her work, she has opened up a new era of disability rights in Taiwan and the wider East Asian region. Grace has held several large international symposiums, bringing together high profile activists, academics and policy makers. With the exchange of international experiences, she has tried to expedite the awareness of disability rights throughout Taiwanese society. Grace has worked alongside other DPOs to lobby various government ministries to implement the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Subsequently, Grace was invited to share the experience of how Taiwan implemented CRPD with disability rights leaders and experts from China, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Mongolia at the East Asia Seminar on the CRPD Implementation and the Civil Society held by University of Tokyo in 2016.

In addition to her responsibilities as Chairperson of the WPSEC, Grace is currently an expert member of Taipei City Committee of Women’s Rights Promotion and Director of R.O.C. Autism Rights Promotion Association, among other positions. Her current research project is “A Study of the Employment Barriers and Suggestions for Women with Severe Physical Disabilities.”