WHO has received notification by Taiwan of its decision to implement and comply with the revised International Health Regulations (IHR) in advance, an official from the world body said on Wednesday.
Denis Aitken, an assistant director-general of the WHO, told a news conference that the information was passed on to the WHO on Tuesday by Shen Lyu-shun (沈呂巡), head of the Geneva bureau of the Taipei Cultural and Economic Delegation in Switzerland.
Aitken said Taiwan's commitment to comply with the IHR meant that it is covered by the IHR framework and that the WHO will do its best to ensure there is no gap in Taiwan's disease control and prevention efforts.
PHOTO: YAO CHIEH-HSIU, TAIPEI TIMES
With the goal of preventing, protecting against, controlling and providing a public health response to the international spread of disease, the revised IHR was adopted by the World Health Assembly (WHA) -- the highest decision-making body of the WHO -- in May last year and is scheduled to come into force on June 15 next year.
In Tokyo, Akira Chiba, a spokesman for Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Japan welcomed Taiwan's compliance with the IHR regardless of the fact that it is not a WHO member, a step which he said will help enhance healthcare in the region.
On Taiwan's bid to take part in the WHA as an observer, Chiba reiterated that Japan hoped that Taiwan would be able to participate in the WHA in a way that was acceptable to all concerned parties.
This year's WHA is scheduled to take place between May 22 and 27 in Geneva.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods