29 January 2024. WBI launches the Taiwan Project for Business and Human Rights [台灣企業人權方案], with Professor Yu-Fan Chiu, renowned labour law professor at the National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in Taiwan. It is a special project that builds on WBI’s strong expertise and programming ties to the Asia Pacific and the labour research of Prof Chiu’s team.
WBI Executive Director Dr Bonny Ling and Professor Yu-Fan Chiu jointly taught a postgraduate course, “Corporate Responsibility and International Human Rights in Supply Chains [供應鏈企業責任與國際人權]” in Spring 2023. This course will start again in February 2024 with a new class of students from academia and industry.
This project follows from the aim of the class to increase knowledge on business and human rights (BHR) and local capacity to address issues at this intersection for Taiwan. The aims of the Taiwan Project are to:
- provide accurate and authoritative research on business and human rights in Taiwan;
- educate young scholars, corporate leaders and practitioners in Taiwan on responsible economic growth; and
- build the capacity needed to support business enterprises in Taiwan on human rights and environmental due diligence.
Since September 2023, we have been working with Taiwanese legal researcher Wen-Chi Chang, who recently won the prestigious Thesis Award in International Law from the Taiwanese Society of International Law, on an analysis of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) in Taiwan. We will be releasing this report bilingually in early 2024.
The pilot is borne out of a hope that Taiwanese enterprises can put into practice the UNGPs, that its National Action Plan for Business and Human Rights (BHR) can be revised to strengthen expectations on businesses and all stakeholders.
The BHR landscape for Taiwan is fast developing, with inputs from civil society, unions and workers, media, businesses and government.
In 2021, Bonny commented on Taiwan’s National Action Plan, A “Journey Begins with a Single Step” and urged the government to go further. We are excited and honoured to be at this junction with many others in Taiwan, who are working on this road of corporate responsibility and human rights.
