v1.2 · Updated 2026-09-20 · Free China Movement (FCM) · Model Legislative Draft · English
Legal character and evidentiary boundaries: This document is a model legislative text, not a law currently in force. All specific historical facts, victim counts, individual liability, institutional liability, or findings of crimes must be established individually under the applicable standards of proof and lawful procedures; naming a historical event as a priority area for investigation, archives, reparations, or commemoration does not amount to a pre-determined finding of the legal liability of any specific individual or institution.
Chapter 1: General Provisions
Article 1 [Legislative purpose]. To establish, under a future democratic constitutional order, a national system of commemoration for victims of suffering and of freedom — commemorating victims, confirmed through lawful procedures, of major political persecution, state violence, civilian harm in war, grave policy disasters, and other major violations of rights; preserving historical facts; and educating society to prevent their recurrence — this Act is hereby formulated.
Article 2 [Legal character]. This Act is a model draft for a future system; it does not alter any current legal status. Its formal implementation requires future legislative procedures with democratic legitimacy.
Article 3 [Proposed name]. It is proposed that October 1 be named the “National Suffering and Freedom Memorial Day.” The formal name and its statutory-holiday status shall be determined by a future legislature.
Chapter 2: Commemorated Persons
Article 4 [Basis of recognition]. Commemorated persons shall be recognized on the basis of court judgments, factual findings of a Truth Commission, archives verified under law, victim reparation decisions, or other reliable lawful procedures.
Article 5 [Priority scope of commemoration]. Priority shall include: (1) civilian victims of major sieges, blockades, grain requisitions, bombings, and other military operations during the Chinese Civil War, including civilians who died of, or were severely harmed by, the prolonged blockade, food shortages, and starvation during the 1948 Siege of Changchun; (2) prisoners of conscience, political prisoners, and other victims persecuted since 1949 for their thought, conscience, religion, expression, journalism, scholarship, association, peaceful political participation, or human-rights activities; (3) those who died of and other grave victims of the great famine caused by the “Great Leap Forward” and related state policies, grain requisitions, and governance failures of 1958–1961; (4) those persecuted, detained, tortured, killed, maimed, deprived of property, or subjected to other serious violations during the Cultural Revolution; (5) those who died, were injured, detained, sentenced, or otherwise persecuted in the crackdown of June 3–4, 1989 and its aftermath; and (6) other major victims confirmed through independent investigation and reliable evidence.
Article 6 [Non-exhaustive list]. The preceding article does not exclude major victims from other periods or of other categories. Any added category shall observe public standards and evidentiary review.
Chapter 3: National Commemorative Ceremony
Article 7 [Annual ceremony]. A national commemorative ceremony shall be held each year on October 1, which may include a moment of silence, lowering of flags, reading of victims’ names, statements by victims’ families, release of newly declassified archives, historical education, and other nonpartisan commemorative activities.
Article 8 [No partisan capture]. No national commemorative activity may require any individual to pledge loyalty to a specific political party, leader, political organization, or ideology.
Article 9 [Participation of victims and families]. The state shall ensure the substantive participation of victims and families in the design and evaluation of commemorative activities, and shall provide accessibility and safety measures.
Chapter 4: National Victim Registry
Article 10 [Registry]. A national victim memorial registry shall be established, recording names, dates, places, categories of violation, basis of recognition, and disclosure status.
Article 11 [Evidentiary status]. Cases not yet sufficiently confirmed shall be marked “pending verification,” “disputed,” or another accurate status; speculation must not be presented as established fact.
Article 12 [Correction procedure]. Victims, family members, interested parties, or persons lawfully named may apply to correct factual errors, and shall enjoy review and judicial remedy.
Article 13 [Privacy options]. Victims or family members may, for reasons of safety, privacy, religion, or other grave cause, apply to restrict public disclosure of names, images, medical records, or other sensitive information.
Chapter 5: Archives and Public Education
Article 14 [Annual archive disclosure]. Each October 1, the national archives authority shall publish, pursuant to the Archives Openness Act, that year’s catalogue of major newly declassified archives, digitization progress, and statistics on restricted disclosure.
Article 15 [Memorial museums]. The state may, in accordance with law, establish a national memorial museum, digital memorial museums, and local memorial facilities, ensuring academic independence, evidentiary annotation, and the dignity of victims.
Article 16 [Education]. Public education materials shall distinguish confirmed facts, reasonable inferences, disputed matters, and political evaluation, and must not conceal major evidentiary disputes.
Chapter 6: Rights Safeguards and Liability Principles
Article 17 [Against collective guilt]. The commemorative system shall not extend historical liability into collective liability of any ethnic group, region, family members, rank-and-file Party members, ordinary civil servants, military personnel, or their descendants.
Article 18 [Individual responsibility]. The pursuit of responsibility against specific individuals shall be based on individual conduct, evidence, and due process, and shall be handled under law by authorities with jurisdiction.
Article 19 [Coordination with the reparation system]. Compensation, rehabilitation of reputation, recovery, and other remedies for victims shall be handled pursuant to the Transitional Justice and Victim Reparation Act.
Chapter 7: Local Implementation and Oversight
Article 20 [Local commemoration]. Local governments may, in accordance with law, establish memorial museums, monuments, local registries, and educational programs, but may not unilaterally alter national statutory recognition standards or delete or alter confirmed facts.
Article 21 [Annual report]. The national agency responsible for commemorative affairs shall each year publish its budget, activities, registry updates, archive disclosures, and complaint-handling.
Article 22 [Legislative evaluation]. The legislature shall periodically evaluate whether the commemorative system meets the goals of nonpartisanship, victim dignity, factual accuracy, rights protection, and prevention of recurrence.
Chapter 8: Supplementary Provisions
Article 23 [Relationship to the policy proposal]. This Act is the implementation-oriented model legislation for the Policy Proposal to Re-designate October 1 as the “National Suffering and Freedom Memorial Day”.
Article 24 [Implementation]. The implementation date of this Act, the statutory status of the memorial day, ceremony standards, and budget shall be determined by a future legislature duly constituted under law.
Back: Third Republic Transitional Justice Legal Package
Comparative practice note
ROC (Taiwan) comparison: Transitional Justice, Victim Remedies & Political Archives — comparative implementation evidence. The statistics and case-flow data on that companion page concern ROC (Taiwan), not mainland China; they are used only to test institutional design, sequencing, safeguards and measurable delivery.
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