Four members of the Taiwan governmental cabinet (Executive Yuan) and the Secretary of Taipei Representative Office in Poland met with IPN Directors headed by the Deputy President Prof. Karol Polejowski. A two hour discussion focused on exchanging information about the structure, tasks and activities of the IPN.

During the meeting Prof. Karol Polejowski outlined some aspects related to the Institute’s structure and activities. Referring to the transitional justice in Poland, Prof. Polejowski underlined that it is our duty to search for and to identify the communist’s victims in order to return them to their families.

Communism has plowed through our society, but has not captured the minds of Poles, said Prof. Karol Polejowski

The IPN Archive Deputy Director Mariusz Żuławnik, Ph.D. explained procedures of collecting, preserving and making available the archival files while the IPN Prosecutor Bogusław Czerwiński gave an insight on the analysis of the documents authenticity for investigation purposes. The Director of The Office for Commemorating the Struggle and Martyrdom Adam Siwek, Ph.D. shared his experience about commemoration of the memorial sites and the process of decommunization of public space in Poland and the Vetting Office Deputy Director Artur Napióra focused on the challenges related to former communist activists who applied for public service jobs.

The meeting was organized by the IPN Office of International Cooperation. It was emphasized that from its onset the IPN had been the mentoring institution, especially in the field of transitional justice.

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In Taiwan, the issues related to transitional justice were tackled by the Transitional Justice Commission which was an independent government agency of Taiwan active from 31 May 2018 to 30 May 2022 based on the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice. The commission was responsible for the investigation of actions taken by the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) between 15 August 1945 and 6 November 1992. The commission's main aims included making political archives more readily available, removing authoritarian symbols, redressing judicial injustice, and producing a report on the history of the period which delineates steps to further promote transitional justice. A new Department of Human Rights and Transitional Justice was launched by the Executive Yuan on 27 June 2022 in Taipei City to continue to promote transitional justice and to protect human rights.