The National Human Rights Museum and Academia Sinica Institute of Taiwan History hosted a two-day workshop Jan. 9-10 on the White Terror period, highlighting government efforts to promote human rights research while bolstering public understanding of the country’s past.
The event was attended by over 100 people, including academics, experts, family members of surviving victims and victims themselves, as well as cultural and human rights workers. The first day’s seminars focused on experience sharing by survivors and family members on their path of recovery, members of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan reflecting on their thoughts after reading government surveillance files on their communities, and cultural workers on their field surveys.
The second day was a presentation of ten essays, which topics included the investigation process of political cases, and other cases involving Indigenous peoples, rural areas and military personnel. ITH Director Chung Shu-min mentioned at the event that a collection of papers presented in the last workshop is to be published soon.
NHRM Deputy Director Chen Shu-man said in her remarks that it is the museum’s responsibility to clarify the historical truth of the period and disseminate it through exhibitions and education. The museum’s work also plays a vital role in realizing the country’s transitional justice, she added.
According to Chen, the two bodies have also been in cooperation since 2017 to compile and streamline White Terror period information resources into an online search platform called Taiwan Human Rights Memory Bank. The resources are categorized into the five main areas of people, events and cases, institutions and organizations, laws and systems, and search terms.
The White Terror refers to a period from 1949 to 1987 in Taiwan and 1992 in the outlying islands of Kinmen and Matsu islands during which the government declared martial law and suppressed and prosecuted political dissidents. (YCH-E)
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