Taiwan Foundation for Democracy

Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD)

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs initiated the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy project in 2002. After much research and careful evaluation, the Ministry integrated the required resources from many sectors of society. In January 2003, the Ministry obtained the support of all political parties to pass the budget for the Foundation in the legislature. The TFD formally came into being on June 17, 2003, with its first meeting of the Board of Trustees and Supervisory Board. At that meeting, Legislative Yuan President Wang Jin-pyng was elected its first chairman. According to its By-laws, the TFD is governed by a total of fifteen trustees and five supervisors, representing political parties, the government, academia, non-governmental organizations, and the business sector."

From 2004: "The influence of Taiwan, the first Chinese democracy, depends upon its status as a beacon of democracy in Asia, said Carl Gershman, president of the National Endowment for Democracy, at the first anniversary of the establishment of the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD) yesterday...

"The Washington-based National Endowment for Democracy was created in 1983 with a mission to strengthen democratic institutions around the world through non-governmental efforts. It has been a major instrument in the establishment of the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy. Formed in June last year, the TFD is the first international foundation promoting democracy to be established in Asia."

From May 31-June 1, 2007 they cosponsored a conference called New Efforts to Promote Democracy with the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) and the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University. Many NED representatives spoke at the conference.

Their website provides links to the following organisations based in North America:
 * Rights & Democracy - International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Develoment (ICHRDD)
 * Center for International Private Enterprise
 * Center for the Study of Democracy
 * Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID)
 * Center on Democratic Performance (CDP)
 * International Forum for Democratic Studies
 * Laogai Research Foundation
 * National Endowment for Democracy
 * Taiwan Communique
 * World Movement for Democracy

Asia Democracy & Human Rights Award
"The Taiwan Foundation for Democracy today honored Reporters sans frontières (RSF or Reporters Without Borders) with first annual Asia Democracy & Human Rights Award (ADHRA) to recognize its outstanding achievements in human rights and democracy. The TFD invited President Chen Shui-bian to present the 2006 Asia Democracy & Human Rights Award sculpture (designed to represent the shield of democracy and human rights) to RSF founder and Secretary-General Robert Ménard, and TFD Chairman Wang Jin-pyng presented the award grant of US$100,000...

"RSF was nominated for the ADHRA by 2003 Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi, China’s “64tianwang.com” webmaster Huang Qi, and Médecins sans frontières founder Bernard Kouchner. The nominators all strongly affirmed the work of the organization in Asia."

People
Accessed August 2007:


 * Chairman - Jin-Pyng Wang
 * Vice Chairman - James Huang
 * President - Wen-cheng Lin

Supervisory Board
 * Bo Yang, Chi-sheng Chen, Tsai-hung Chan, Tsai Ming-hua, Michael Hsin-huang Hsiao

==International Visiting Fellows ==
 * 2006 - Irshad Ahmad, Wang Dan, Ming-tong Chen, Jesse Heatley, Paul Lin, Bogdan Radu, Mirkomil Sadikov, Jen-kun Fu, Kazuhiko Togo, Jeffrey Martin, Kazumi Sato
 * 2005 - William C. Vocke, Jr., Junko Hoshi, Su-Mei Ooi
 * 2004 - Dafydd Fell, Donald Rodgers, Stephane Corcuff, Yoshihisa Amae
 * 2003 - Johan Skarendahl and Karin Svarnborg

Contact

 * Web: http://www.tfd.org.tw/english

Related Sourcewatch

 * Global Rights
 * International Human Rights Funders Group: Funders Directory