Constructing rights in Taiwan: the feminist factor, democratization, and the quest for global citizenship

Abstract

In an era of worldwide rights regression, beleaguered Taiwan remains Asia’s most democratic, gender equitable, and liberal internationalist nation. What accounts for this seemingly exceptional record—and how does the feminist factor contribute to the construction of rights? Bridging constructivist and feminist scholarship, this essay argues that gender equity is a force multiplier for democratization as it empowers civil society and fosters legitimacy at home and abroad. In a three-level game, states at the margin of the international system may benefit from rights reform that expands the national interest and delivers material and reputational rewards. The case of Taiwan illustrates the dynamics of the double transition to liberal democracy and a liberal gender regime and its projection to world politics. The rewards of rights for Taiwan suggest a wider range of options even in small states facing regional challenges—and greater attention to the feminist factor in world politics.

Keywords:

• human rights
• Taiwan
• gender
• democratization
• transnationalism

Acknowledgements

All views expressed are the responsibility of the author alone, independent of any positions or claims of Taiwan’s government, and the individuals cited. Many thanks to my academic sponsor, National Taiwan University’s Center on Population and Gender, the skilled research assistance of Hsuan-an Su, and the individuals interviewed.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 While the Republic of China (Taiwan) was recognized widely in the international arena as the post-revolutionary inheritor of the mainland Kuomintang government–that had retreated to the island in 1949–the ROC was supplanted in the United Nations by the People’s Republic of China in 1971. After the U.S. broke diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favor of the mainland in 1979, in the ensuing decades Taiwan lost diplomatic relations with most of the world’s states and participation rights in many international organizations, in a continuing campaign by the PRC to deny Taiwan’s independent status.

2 Similarly, the 1998 Domestic Violence Law—the first in Asia—was drafted by a more humanitarian social movement rooted in the KMT women’s protection initiatives, the Modern Women’s Foundation, who worked with a sympathetic judge Feng-Xian Gao.

3 While women’s reproductive rights in terms of access to contraception and abortion are generally well-protected in Taiwan, rights-based reform of the 1984 Abortion Law stands as one of the few failures of women’s movement advocacy. (Interviews Chang-Ling Huang).

4 The 2019 Marriage Equality Law was a response to a 2017 Constitutional court ruling and had a combined legislative and judicial trajectory.

5 Between the 2107 court decision and the 2019 legislation validating same-sex marriage, a 2018 referendum showed civic ambivalence when a majority voted to approve a definition of marriage as a heterosexual union. In a parallel vein, some faith-based and parents’ organizations have mobilized at the local level to challenge inclusion of LGBT rights in school programs mandated under the Gender Equity in Education Act.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Taiwan Fellowship sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in September-December 2019.

Notes on contributors

Alison Brysk

Alison Brysk is the Duncan and Suzanne Mellichamp Professor of Global Governance at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is the author or editor of fifteen books on international human rights, most recently The Struggle for Freedom from Fear: Contesting Violence Against Women at The Frontiers of Globalization (Oxford University Press, 2018) and The Future of Human Rights (Polity Press, 2018). Professor Brysk has been selected Distinguished Scholar in Human Rights of the International Studies Association and the American Political Science Association; a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center; a Fulbright Professor in Canada, India, and the UK; a Taiwan Fellow; and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.