For over four decades after the Allied victors in the second world war allowed Chiang Kai-shek’s Chinese government to reclaim Taiwan from Japan, the generalissimo’s Kuomintang maintained a ruthless Leninist-style dictatorship over the island. Yet KMT propaganda hoodwinked many outside the island to believe that it, unlike the Maoist regime that chased it from mainland China in 1949, was the defender of democracy, the rule of law and human rights for Chinese people.

Earlier this month Taiwan concluded a United Nations-type review of its implementation of the two principal human rights treaties, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). It is the first time Taiwan has undergone an outside, comprehensive evaluation of its human rights record in a wide range of areas. Although this on-site review received little international or local media attention, its effects on the island’s human rights should not be underestimated.

On February 28th, the Pacific Century Institute awarded Professor Jerome Cohen the 2013 PCI Building Bridges Award, established to honor people who have enhanced relations between Americans and Asians and who exemplify PCI’s commitment to building bridges to a better future. Former awardees include Kathleen Stephens, U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Korea 2008-2011; Harold Brown, US Secretary of Defense 1977-1981; Maestro Lorin Maazel of the New York Philharmonic; and Christopher Hill, US Assistant Secretary of State 2005-2009.

On March 1, Taiwan concluded a United Nations-type review of its implementation of the two principal human rights treaties, namely the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). A group of international experts, who were invited to Taiwan to conduct the review in their individual capacity, issued their “Concluding Observations and Recommendations,” identifying a slew of issues concerning whether Taiwan’s government has met the requirements of the two major treaties. This on-site review was the first time that the government of Taiwan invited independent international experts to systematically evaluate its human rights records in accordance with the two Covenants.