The Freshwater Institute is on a fast track to becoming an independent organization and regional resource for human rights innovators.  

In December 2023, 29 members of the Freshwater Institute’s general assembly held their first in-person meeting. The general assembly and board meeting are a milestone in the process of registering Freshwater as an independent civil society organization with the Taiwan Ministry of Interior.  

After approving the articles of association, work plan, and budget, the general assembly held elections for the nine members of the board of directors and three supervisors, as required by Taiwan’s Ministry of Interior. Annie Huang, Freshwater’s newly appointed Senior Advisor, moderated the election process. The elected board members include experienced civil society and international NGO leaders in Taiwan, in addition to a lawyer, two academics, a social impact consultant based in London, and an independent photojournalist.

After the general assembly, the elected board members convened to choose the board chair. Freshwater’s board chair is Clarence Chou, a lawyer who has been involved with a number of human rights legal cases in Taiwan and was previously the board chair of Taiwan’s oldest human rights organization, Taiwan Association for Human Rights (TAHR).

Shawn Shieh, co-founder of the Freshwater Institute, shared his thoughts with the general assembly on Freshwater’s role in promoting human rights in East Asia. In his remarks, he noted:

I moved to Taiwan two years ago, after working for more than 10 years with NGOs in China, Hong Kong, and the Global South. I’ve seen that the world is changing and the space for advocacy NGOs and moderate, nonviolent solutions is getting smaller, while the space for extremism, conflict and war is growing.

Taiwan is an exception to this global trend. There is still space here for civil society to develop. I want to use this space to think about new ways to support and strengthen groups advocating for a more equal, just, and peaceful world. One way is to help these groups develop new business and fundraising models so they can have more diverse and sustainable funding. A second way is to strengthen networking in the region between advocacy groups in Taiwan and groups outside of Taiwan.

Here at Freshwater, we see ourselves playing a supporting role to human rights groups working on the frontlines by strengthening the ecosystem that allows civil society and human rights to flourish.

在臺灣登記立案只差一步：思流學院成立大會及首屆理監事聯席會

思流學院正朝著成為獨立組織及東亞人權創新者的區域型資源中心快速邁進。

2023年12月，思流學院的29名成員召開了首次的實體會議——成立大會以及理監事聯席會，這是思流學院向臺灣內政部登記立案為獨立公民社會組織過程中重要的里程碑。

會員們在成立大會中議決章程、年度工作計劃以及年度預算，並依據臺灣內政部的要求選出九名理事及三名監事，由思流學院新任高級顧問黃尚卿主持選舉。當選的理事包括在臺灣擁有豐富公民社會和國際非政府組織領導經驗的人士，以及一名律師、兩名學者、一名旅居倫敦的社會影響顧問和一名獨立攝影記者。

大會結束後，剛當選的理事們隨即召開會議選出理事長。思流學院的理事長為周宇修，一名在臺灣參與過多起人權法律案件的律師，也曾擔任過臺灣人權促進協會的理事長，臺灣人權促進協會是臺灣歷史最悠久的人權組織。

思流學院共同創辦人謝世宏在成立大會中，分享了他對思流學院在推動東亞人權空間中扮演的角色。他在致詞中提到：

我在兩年前搬到臺灣，之前曾在中國、香港和全球南方的非政府組織工作了十多年。我看到世界正在改變，倡導非暴力解決方案的非政府組織和溫和派解決方案的生存空間正在縮小，而極端主義、衝突和戰爭的空間卻正在擴大。
 
在這樣的全球趨勢中，臺灣恰好是個例外，這裡仍然保有發展公民社會的空間。我希望善用這個空間思考出新方法，以支持並強化那些努力實現更加平等、公正、和平的世界的組織。達到這個目的其中一種方法，便是幫助這些組織發展新的商業模式和籌款模式，以利其獲得更多樣化且永續發展的資金來源，另一種方法則是加強區域內以及臺灣內外倡議型組織之間的連結。
 
在思流學院，我們期許自己能支援並強化支持前線人權組織的生態系統，以幫助公民社會和人權就可以成長茁壯。