The commission's main aims include: 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.
The act sought to rectify injustices committed by the authoritarian Kuomintang government of the Republic of China on Taiwan, and to this end established the Transitional Justice Commission to investigate actions taken from 15 August 1945, the date of the Hirohito surrender broadcast, to 6 November 1992, when president Lee Teng-hui lifted the Temporary Provisions against the Communist Rebellion for Fuchien Province, Republic of China, ending the period of mobilization.
Huang Huang-hsiung was chosen to chair the committee[4][5] and five other members were nominated by 31 March 2018: Chang Tien-chin, Hua Yih-fen, Hsu Hsueh-chi, Eleng Tjaljimaraw, and Greg Yo.
Yang Tsui was formally elected chairperson, serving alongside committee members Awi Mona, Chen Yu-fan, Hsu Wei-chun, Lin Chia-fan, Peng Jen-yu, Frank Wang, and Yeh Hung-ling.
The commission has worked together with other organizations dedicated to transitional justice, such as the May 18 Memorial Foundation from South Korea[18] and the Stasi Records Agency of Germany.
[29] On 17 December 2018, the commission recommended that the honor guard at Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall be discontinued, as it is a symbol of the authoritarian era.
[36] On 4 July 2019, the Legislative Yuan passed a bill declassifying all government documents relating to the February 28 Incident, White Terror and period of mobilization.
When the act was passed, the National Security Bureau held files concerning the deaths of Chen Wen-chen and the Lin family massacre which were still classified.
[40] On 17 February 2020, the commission released a report[41] that found that intelligence agencies were most likely involved in the Lin family massacre during martial law.
[42] On 28 February 2020, President Tsai Ing-wen ordered the National Security Bureau to declassify political documents requested by the commission within one month.
[48] On February 26, 2020, the commission publicly released a database consisting of government documents concerning military trials during martial law, covering 3,195 court cases.
[51] In May 2020, the commission announced that the concept of transitional justice would be included as a part of the civics and social sciences curriculum in public schools, in addition to the current topics of human rights and state-perpetrated violence.