Transitional Justice and the Rights of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples

In 2016, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen officially apologised to the island’s indigenous peoples. This national apology not only plays a persuasive role in informing the general public about the historical wrongdoings inflicted on the Taiwanese aborigines, but also constitutes a therapeutic and restorative role in the process of reconciliation with the indigenous victims. This article provides a critical discourse analysis of President Tsai’s apology. In particular, it examines the power and ideology embedded in both the speech and the related ceremony, and is supplemented with extracts from interviews with a cross-section of key stakeholders, such as a former Constitutional/Supreme Court Justice, indigenous/tribal leaders and members/staff/advisers from the Presidential Office Indigenous Historical Justice and Transitional Justice Committee. The analysis reveals that, despite President Tsai’s apology and reconciliation policies, instead of facilitating reconciliation, the apology appears to exacerbate the long-standing latent tension between indigenous and non-indigenous groups. While the apology opens a window for reconciliation, a higher level of commitment is required to promote structural and systemic changes, such as land restitution, before the apology can be deemed adequate.

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Canada and the Legacy of the Indian Residential Schools: Transitional Justice for Indigenous Peoples in a Non-Transitional Society

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.1374950 ◽

2009 ◽

Author(s):

Courtney Jung

Keyword(s):

Indigenous Peoples ◽

Transitional Justice ◽

Residential Schools ◽

Transitional Society ◽

Indian Residential Schools

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Identity, Memory and Legacy: Indigenous Taiwan

Te Kaharoa ◽

10.24135/tekaharoa.v13i3.252 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 13 (3) ◽

Author(s):

Jolan Hsieh ◽

Sifo Lakaw

Keyword(s):

Indigenous Peoples ◽

Transitional Justice ◽

Total Population ◽

Indigenous Population ◽

Southeastern China ◽

Indigenous Status ◽

The Pacific ◽

The Indian Ocean ◽

The Pacific Ocean ◽

Official Records

Sixteen Indigenous peoples/nations have been officially recognized by Taiwan’s government: Amis (Pangcah), Atayal, Paiwan, Bunun, Puyuma, Rukai, Tsou, Saisiyat, Yami (Tao), Thao, Kavalan, Truku, Sakizaya, Seediq, Kla'alua and Kanakanavu. Additionally, some ten nations of the plains Indigenous peoples (such as Siraya, and Makatao) are obtaining recognition for their lost Indigenous status since the work of Transitional Justice initiated by President Tsai Ing-wen. Unlike the later migrants who came from southeastern China, Taiwan’s Indigenous peoples belong to the larger Austronesian grouping of peoples who have spread across all of the Pacific Ocean, to Southeast Asia and across the Indian Ocean to Madagascar. According to official records, the Indigenous population of Taiwan is close to 560,000, constituting 2.24 per cent of the island’s total population.

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The Three R’s of Seeking Transitional Justice: Reparation, Responsibility, and Reframing in Canada and Argentina

International Indigenous Policy Journal ◽

10.18584/iipj.2011.2.3.3 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 2 (3) ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Michelle Bonner ◽

Matt James

Keyword(s):

Indigenous Peoples ◽

Transitional Justice ◽

Residential Schools ◽

Truth Commission ◽

Political Accountability ◽

Crucial Difference ◽

Indigenous Children ◽

Settler Society ◽

Advanced Capitalist

In Canada an officially mandated truth commission inquiring into the forced assimilation and abuse of Indigenous children in state-organized and funded residential schools raises profound and in many ways quite novel questions about transitional justice concerning Indigenous peoples in advanced capitalist societies. This article compares the Canadian case with that of a quintessential transitional justice pioneer: Argentina. Focusing on the efforts of justice-seekers in each country, it reveals similarities in their respective pursuits of what the article identifies as three important transitional justice goals: reparation, responsibility and reframing. However, the article also finds a crucial difference between the two cases. This difference is that justice seekers in Argentina have placed a heavy emphasis on social and political accountability, a goal that, in various ways, has received much less attention in the Canadian case. We conclude that this absence raises broader issues about transitional justice processes in countries marked by ongoing legacies of anti-Indigenous colonialism—issues that Canadians from the settler society, in particular, must begin urgently to address.

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