Soft Power in a Hard Place: Assessing Taiwan’s National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights and Its Ongoing Revisions for the Second Phase

Abstract Taiwan, a global economic leader in the semiconductor industry, faces challenges from its exclusion from the United Nations (UN) human rights treaty system. Growing concerns about the impact of Taiwanese corporations’ overseas operations on human rights and sustainability highlight Taiwan’s distinct position in international human rights legal frameworks. This paper, based on experiences as former legal counsel for Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs, offers insights into Taiwan’s first National Action Plan (NAP) on Business and Human Rights. It analyses the key features of the plan and evaluates the implementation of Taiwan’s first NAP, alongside its ongoing revisions for the second phase. Taiwan’s unilateral adoption of major international human rights conventions, as evidenced by its self-ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) from the late 2000s to the present, underscores its role as a norm entrepreneur in harmonizing domestic legislation with international standards. This commitment is particularly evident in its efforts to implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Introduced in December 2020, Taiwan’s NAP is the third of its kind in Asia, shaped by external influences such as the European Union’s human rights diplomacy after the 2015 Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing incident. The plan was developed using a ‘bottom-up’ approach with active stakeholder engagement. The NAP integrates sustainable development goals (SDGs), aiming to meet the UN SDGs by 2030, with a focus on labour rights, environmental sustainability, and corporate transparency. Its success, however, will depend on stronger enforcement mechanisms and improved corporate accountability. In the aftermath of the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections, Taiwan is anticipated to update its human rights and foreign policies. Further research is required to evaluate the effectiveness of the first phase of the NAP (2020–24).