This is the second post in a series by Taiwan Mad Alliance.
![\"\"](\"https://whatweneed.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Taiwan-Mad-Alliance_2-194x300.jpg\")
On December 13, 2006, The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) (A/RES/61/106) was adopted and came into force on 3 May 2008. On March 3, 2007, CRPD was already opened for signature by regional organizations. * But for Taiwan, a country still on an undetermined status, with an ambiguous role internationally, is hard to join the UN, not to mention having a chance to sign up to CRPD. However, activists in Taiwan (mostly persons with physical disabilities) didn’t give up on advocating for ‘disabilities right”, in 2007, Taiwanese government amended ‘Physically and Mentally Disabled Citizens Protection Act’ to ‘People with Disabilities Rights Protection Act’, declaring that in the legal world, persons with disabilities would from now on be transformed from being ‘underprivileged in need for charity’ into an ‘empowered subject with equal civil rights’.
However, compared to the CRPD, ‘People with Disabilities Rights Protection Act’ not only fails to reform the unequal structure that oppresses the persons with disabilities, but also lacks a decree setting up a supervisory authority. So in 2014, the Legislative-Yuan took third reading, gave final approval to the ‘Act to Implement the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’. The passing of the act implies that, not only CRPD ‘has domestic legal status.’ (Article 2), but also indicates that it’s government’s obligation to review and amend all domestic laws that do not comply with the Convention: ‘Each level of government authority shall provide a priority review list about the legislation and administrative measures under its jurisdiction based on the provisions of the Convention within two year from the implementation of this Law’ (Article 10). And as a supervisory authority to supervise government, ‘Committee for the Promotion of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Executive Yuan’ is established; the act also requires that after 2 years of the enforcement of the act, Taiwanese government should publish a quadrennial report (the government report) on the rights of the persons with disabilities once every four years. Government’s report would be reviewed by representatives of service users, survivors, persons with disabilities, experts, scholars and NGOs. Basically, all citizens have the right to review the government report, and ‘national reports shall be filed every four years. Relevant academic experts and representatives from private organizations shall be invited to review the reports. Relevant academic experts in the provisions of the preceding paragraph shall include persons who are experienced in the affairs of the rights of persons with disability in the Unitied Nations. The government shall review and study subsequent policies based on their opinions, and regularly check the performance of the reporting system.’ (Article 7).
On December 3, 2016, Taiwan had published the first government report.
The second government report will be published next month(Early December, 2020).
Before the final version of the government report is finalized for international review next year, the Taiwanese government held two rounds of domestic review meetings. Reviewers in the first round are from ‘Committee for the Promotion of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Executive Yuan’, they held 7 meetings from March 3 to April 21, 2020. The second round of review is divided into two batches, first from May 2 to June 30 (11 meetings) and the second from September 7-9 (3 meetings), all meetings open to a wide range of individuals and organizations.
The second round of review meetings were held in the North, Central, South and Eastern regions of Taiwan, with its best to collect opinions from different areas in Taiwan. The meetings also set very few restrictions on enrollment. The relaxed eligibility criteria giving Taiwan Mad Alliance (TMA) a chance to participate. TMA representatives: Shiou-Wu Wang and Zhao-Sheng Lin joined in the ‘NGO consultation on the second draft of the CRPD 2020 periodic report’ on September 7-8. All conditions like: multiple meeting locations, easy eligibility criteria, all seem like ‘good’ design to facilitate citizen participation. But do they? Will the final national report that comes out really incorporate the needs of persons with disabilities? Based on the TMA members Shiou-Wu Wang, Zhao-Sheng Lin’s experiences participating in the ‘NGO consultation on the second draft of the CRPD 2020 periodic report’ on September 7-8, TMA members will continue to explore these questions that bewildered us in our next week #WhatWENeed series post.
(Picture drawn by TMA member Fyon)
* 部分名詞翻譯修改過，非常感謝Yibee Huang的建議！
=====
連到
What WE Need
可見全球倡議者的響應
*關於更多CRPD的歷史；For more info about history of CRPD：
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)
10th anniversary of the adoption of Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)
國家報告的撰寫與審查大事紀可見
—–
#WhatWENeed –to know
你知道嗎？CRPD在台灣，具有國內法的效力。
Do you know? CRPD has domestic legal status in Taiwan.
2006年12月13日，聯合國第61/106號決議通過「身心障礙者權利公約（Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, CRPD）」，於2007年3月30日開放各國簽署，並在2008年正式生效。並非會員國的臺灣政府，在無法簽署更罔論批准情況下，先是在2007年將《身心障礙者保護法》修訂為《身心障礙者權益保障法》，宣示障礙者今後在法律世界中，將從被救濟者搖身一變成為權利主體。
然而與CRPD相較，《身權法》既無法調控壓迫在障礙者身上的不平等結構，亦缺乏督責主責機關的法令設置，是以到了2014年，立法院三讀通過《身心障礙者權利公約施行法》，不僅明示公約「具有國內法律之效力」（第2條） ，更要求各政府機關檢視並增修不合公約規定的國內法規及行政措施 （第10條），此優先他法的位階性具有改造法規秩序之動能；另外，「身心障礙者權益推動小組」、「國家報告」制度等設置，則是引入外部監度的制度性規範，以後者為例，《施行法》要求政府在該法實施後二年，定期發佈四年一次的「身心障礙者權利報告」，「並邀請相關專家學者及民間團體代表審閱」，而審閱之意見，「應」對政府的後續施政方針具有規範性作用 （第7條）。
2016年12月3日，首次國家報告出爐。
第二次報告則預定於下個月公布。
在國家報告最終版底定，預備在明年接受國際審查前，臺灣政府開啟二輪國內審查會議，第一輪審查會議由身心障礙者權益推動小組研商，從2020年3月3日至4月21日，共舉行7場；第二輪會議則開放各個人與法人，於2020年5月2日至6月30日舉行第一梯次11場會議，於2020年9月7日至9月9日舉行第二梯次3場會議。
第二輪審查會議沒有太多報名限制，且分別在北中南及東部各地舉辦，這些制度設計均有助公民參與，然而，民間聲音真的因此被聽見嗎？最終出爐的國家報告真的能因此納入更多障礙者需求嗎？透過失序盟成員王修梧與林昭生在9/7、9/8於「CRPD第二次國家報告國內審查第二輪審查會議」參與及觀察，我們將繼續於下週#WhatWENeed系列文繼續探究這些提問。
（本文配圖由失序盟成員秀秀繪製）
＝＝＝＝＝