Taiwan and France signed a joint declaration outlining the willingness of the two countries to work together to promote human rights globally Tuesday.

National Human Rights Commission Chairperson Chen Chu (??) and Jean-François Casabonne-Masonnave, director of the French Office in Taipei, inked a joint declaration on future cooperation and exchanges on international/regional human rights and civil society issues, the commission said in a statement.

Thanks to the all-out effort of people in Taiwan, the country has successfully transformed itself from an authoritarian regime into a diverse democracy, which shares the same values of liberty, equality and fraternity as like-minded France, with both willing to fight for those values, Chen was quoted as saying in the statement.

Human rights are a universal principle that transcend boundaries and Taiwan looks forward to widening cooperation and exchanging experiences with France in this regard in regions around the world, Chen said.

For his part, Casabonne-Masonnave was cited in the statement, issued in Chinese only, as saying that the emergence of unilateralism has profoundly impacted universal values, and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war is clear proof of the significance of international cooperation.

Calling Taiwan an important partner of France in its promotion of human rights in the Indo-Pacific region, the French envoy to Taiwan expressed hope that Taiwan and France could learn from and share each other on human rights issues.

Casabonne-Masonnave also said he looks forward to being able to promote multilateral dialogue and cooperation between human rights institutions in Taiwan, France and other European countries in the future.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel