On July 15, the Siraya community submitted a petition for ethnic recognition to the Executive Yuan. The Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP) stated that the government has already followed the Constitutional Court’s Interpretation No. 17 (2022), and on May 15 of this year sent the draft Plains Indigenous Peoples Status Act to the Legislative Yuan for review. Once the law is passed, the Plains Peoples can be formally recognized as indigenous peoples by law.

The CIP explained that in its 2022 ruling, the Constitutional Court held that “Indigenous peoples shall include all existing Austronesian-speaking peoples of Taiwan,” but that the government must first enact or amend laws to clearly define “the criteria for indigenous recognition, the requirements for membership, and the registration procedures.”

The ruling further stipulates that relevant laws must be enacted or amended “within three years from the date of this decision.” If the government fails to do so within that period, Plains Peoples may “apply directly to the central indigenous affairs authority for recognition in accordance with this ruling.” Since the three-year deadline (October 28, 2025) has not yet passed, the government cannot at present directly recognize the Siraya as an indigenous people without legislation in place in line with the Constitutional Court’s requirements.

The CIP emphasized that the Executive Yuan approved the draft Plains Indigenous Peoples Status Act on May 15, 2025, and it is now under review by the Legislative Yuan’s Internal Administration Committee. The CIP is actively engaging with legislators across party lines in the hope of completing the legislation before the Constitutional Court’s deadline.