The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday confirmed that the UN in June rejected two human rights covenants signed by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) earlier in the year, but said the refusal did not indicate that Taiwan’s diplomacy had failed.
The two UN covenants — the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights — were ratified by the legislature and signed by Ma in March and May respectively.
However, the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported that the global body refused to recognize Taiwan as an official signatory, citing the “one China” principle.
“This is a political reality we need to face. One must be a UN member state in order to participate in the two covenants. But [the rejection] will not deter the government from implementing the content of the two documents domestically,” MOFA Spokesman Henry Chen (陳銘政) said, adding that the ministry would “use other methods” to show the world Taiwan’s determination in upholding human rights.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said the UN’s rejection showed that Ma’s “China-friendly” policies had failed to win the respect of Beijing.
“It is very pitiful that Ma still cannot see the Chinese Communist Party’s true colors. It was wishful thinking that his unilateral declaration of a ‘diplomatic truce’ would discourage China from oppressing Taiwan in the international arena,” he said.
DPP Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) said Ma had singlehandedly ruined Taiwan’s efforts to improve human rights and that the world was fully aware of this.
He said the UN’s decision to exclude Taiwan from the two covenants showed that no matter how much favor Taiwan curried with China, Beijing would never waver in its goal of denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty.
Meanwhile, the legislature yesterday referred the government’s document on how the UN dealt with the country’s ratification of the two covenants to its Foreign and National Defense Committee.
The legislature ratified the two covenants on March 31 and they were approved by the president on May 14.
In the document, MOFA said that UN Under Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Patricia O’Brien replied on June 15 that “UN Secretary-General [Ban Ki-moon] was in no position to accept Taiwan’s ratification because of UN Resolution 2758, which recognizes the People’s Republic of China as the sole and legitimate representative of China.”
Ban also cited the resolution in August 2007 when rejecting Taiwan’s request to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
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