President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday urged the WHO to grant Taiwan observer status at the World Health Assembly (WHA), saying it was not a requirement for observers to be sovereign states.
"Everybody knows that even non-sovereign states such as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and the Palestine Liberation Organization are observers at the WHA. Why are the human rights and health of the Taiwanese being neglected?" Chen said yesterday.
He made the comments in a teleconference with health experts and academics in Geneva regarding the nation's bid to gain WHA observership status.
Taiwan is to launch its 10th bid to obtain WHA observer status at the annual WHA meeting to be held from Monday to Saturday.
In addition to applying for WHA observer status, authorities also focused their campaign on "meaningful participation," a pragmatic approach that could allow Taiwan to participate in WHO-related activities, and perhaps become a partner to the Global Outbreak & Alert Network (GOARN) and the International Health Regulations.
"You don't have to be a full member of the UN or a recognized sovereign state to be a part of the global disease prevention network. If the US CDC [Center for Disease Control] can be part of the GOARN, why can't Taiwan's CDC be included? And if so many public health schools and institutions around the world are part of this GOARN network, why can't the 23 million people of Taiwan be part of the network? Why are our human rights and health being jeopardized and ignored?" Chen said yesterday.
The health experts and academics who participated in yesterday's teleconference included the World Medical Association Secretary-General Kgosi Letlape, Konrad Szymanski, a member of the European Parliament, and Philippe Regnier, director of the Center of Modern Asian Research at the University of Geneva.
Letlape expressed concern that Taiwan's campaign for "meaningful participation" in WHO-related activities could prove detrimental.
"`Meaningful participation' politicizes participation. I'll push for the terminology to be changed in the pursuit of full participation. Because `meaningful' creates a problem which could lead to discrimination. To give you an example, you are either pregnant or not pregnant. There is no `full pregnancy' or `meaningful pregnancy,'" Letlape told the Taipei Times after the teleconference.
Letlape urged Taiwan to focus on gaining full observer status, regardless of how long it took, saying the term "meaningful participation" would only narrow the scope of the nation's involvement.
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