Announcing a new human rights journal: Taiwan Human Rights Journal

Why do we need a human rights journal? What kind of human rights journal do we need?

After over a year of discussion and debate, the Chang Fo-chuan Center for the Study of Human Rights at Soochow University, Taipei has decided to launch a human rights journal.

Since the mid-1980s, Taiwan has witnessed a process of democratization. Civil society has been rejuvenated, and non-government organizations, including human rights organizations, have become more robust. More and more scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds, such as law, sociology, philosophy, politics, public health and anthropology, etc, have begun to engage in research and teaching in the field of human rights. Human rights ideas and concepts have also been incorporated into secondary and primary school curricula since the implementation of the Grade 1-9 Curriculum Guidelines in 1995. The establishment of the Human Rights Education Committee and the Gender Equity Education Committee in the Ministry of Education further contributed to the promotion of human rights education. Plainly, human rights research and pedagogy has emerged as a new academic discipline in Taiwan. However, there is as yet no academic journal for human rights studies of. Our journal is designed to fill this gap.

We envision a journal of the highest standard; balancing theoretical and practical perspectives; drawing upon different disciplines, including law, sociology, philosophy, politics, public health and anthropology, etc; and addressing concrete issues confronting society. Generally speaking, every issue will have a special feature consisting of a cluster of three or four articles. For example, the inaugural issue will feature three articles dealing with different dimensions of Taiwan’s implementation of the International Bill of Rights (the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.) There will also be research notes, notes from the field, and book review essays.

With this experience in promoting research and teaching in the field, the Chang Fo-chuan Center for the Study of Human Rights is certainly qualified to launch and manage a human rights journal. The Editorial Board has decided on the name of the Taiwan Human Rights Journal, and has prepared the inaugural issue for release in December, 2011. Beginning next year, the Journal will be published twice a year, in June and in December. An Advisory Board comprising well-known scholars and experts from different parts of the world will help decide the direction and set the agenda for the Journal.

Although the Journal is published and managed by the Chang Fo-chuan Center for the Study of Human Rights, it rightly belongs to the academic community and human rights NGOs in Taiwan as a whole. It is our sincere wish that in due time it will become a valuable shared resource for the Chinese-speaking communities in different parts of the world.

November, 2011