Two of Taiwan's most important bases for political and women's human rights education, the National Human Rights Museum and the Ama Museum, announced on Oct. 30 that they had signed a memorandum of understanding. The two will integrate and share government and private resources and promote exchanges and cooperation, further boosting their shared mission of human rights education.
Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation chairwoman Huang Shu-ling (黃淑玲) remarked that for over two decades the foundation has been speaking up for Taiwan's "comfort women," including the 2016 founding of the Ama Museum with the aim of preserving videos, books, and documents connected with their history. In their work advocating for human rights, they have strived to provide an international platform for these women, as well as raise awareness of gender and human rights issues at home in Taiwan.
This joining of forces between the NHRM and Ama Museum is a new milestone in these efforts, facilitating cooperation, connection, and exchange, and enabling both sides to work even harder for the cause of human rights education.
Director of the National Human Rights Museum Chen Chun-hung (陳俊宏) noted that the NHRM not only works to preserve the historical sites at Green Island and Jingmei, but also to connect them with the collective memory of the Taiwanese people and form a "human rights educational network."
Through their cooperation with the Ama Museum, they will be able to expand their scope into the area of gender rights education. This strategic alliance will not only harness the knowledge and experience of both parties, but also help provide later generations with a better understanding of human rights and how to defend them.
Human rights are the cornerstone of modern Taiwan. In recent years, there has been a growing push for transitional justice, and this MOU between the NHRM and the Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation’s Ama Museum signifies that the issue of comfort women and women’s rights must be taken seriously at the national level. The MOU was signed at the Ama Museum, further reinforcing the symbolic and material importance of this combination of civic and public sector resources.
The establishment of a National Human Rights Museum has been keenly anticipated by Taiwanese society, and by past political prisoners in particular, for over 15 years. With the most vigorous efforts of the state, modern Taiwan can now confront its dark history of human rights, reflect, learn, and move forward to a brighter future ... (read more)
The Ama Museum is the first museum dedicated to the Taiwanese comfort women who were forced into sexual slavery by the imperial Japanese army during World War II. Housing an exhibition space and a cafe, the venue preserves stories of former Taiwanese comfort women and their overlooked history while advocating for women's rights ... (read more)