Lawmakers questioned the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' (MOFA) strategy in pushing Taiwan's bid to participate in the World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday, after the UN health agency rejected the country's ninth application to become an observer last week.
At a legislative question-and-answer session, Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Legislator Lai Hsin-yuan (賴幸媛) asked Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Michael Kau (高英茂) why the ministry has spent nine years seeking "observer status" in the World Health Assembly (WHA), the WHO's top decision-making body that meets annually.
The WHA currently has five observers -- the Holy See, the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
But these territories or organizations do not really possess observer "status" in the assembly, Lai said. They are observers in the WHA in the sense that they are invited to send their delegates to sit in the assembly when it meets every year, the lawmaker added.
"I read through the WHO Constitution and other WHO-related regulations and found that none of these documents mentioned anything about `observer status' in the WHA," Lai said.
According to WHO regulations, all states can send applications for membership to the director-general of the health body, Lai said.
Taiwan, which launched its first bid to join the WHA in 1997, has never taken the step to submit an application for membership to the WHO's director-general, said Lai, who revealed that the government has spent NT$3 billion on the country's WHO bid every year.
Though Lai acknowledged it is highly unlikely the WHO director-general would accept Taiwan's application, she said the country should at least try applying to the health body for membership.
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In answering the questions, Kau said that though WHO regulations do not mention "observer status," "by practice" such capacity does exist in the WHA.
The ministry decided to launch the country's first bid for observership in the WHA after consulting a former legal adviser to the body, Kau said.
The US and Japan, both supportive of Taiwan's application to become an observer in the WHA, may not maintain the same level of support if Taiwan decides to go for membership in the UN health body, Kau added.
The diplomat said the ministry has to take into account the "reality in the international community" in working on the country's health bid.
Kau, the most senior diplomat to fly to Geneva -- where the WHA met last week -- to work on the country's WHO bid, said he had decided not to call a vote on whether to add Taiwan's application for observer status to the WHA agenda because of the EU's attitude.
Despite Taiwan's strenuous lobbying, the EU was "very reserved" in lending backing to Taiwan's WHO bid, Kau said. Without the vital support of the EU, Taiwan simply would not have enough votes to get its application for observership added to the WHA agenda, he said.
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