Mon, Jul 23, 2007 page3

• Youth group supports UN bid

  MAKING A STAND The director of the DPP's department of youth development called the International Federation of Liberal Youth declaration `a great act for the public good'

  • By Flora Wang / STAFF REPORTER
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  A proposal by a Taiwanese youth organization put forward at the annual assembly of the International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY) in Dallas supporting Taiwan's bid to join the UN using the name "Taiwan" was approved and adopted unanimously by the assembly in a joint declaration on Saturday.

  The assembly voted in favor of the proposal put forward by the Taiwan Young Democratic Union (TYDU), a youth organization affiliated with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), citing the 2nd item of Article 1 of the UN Charter as its rationale, a TYDU press release said.

  The charter states that "the purposes of the UN are to develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace."

  Huang Ju-yu (黃如玉), a standing committee member of TYDU, told the assembly that the human rights of the 23 million people in Taiwan are being ignored by the international community because of Taiwan's exclusion from the UN and many other international organizations.

  "The Taiwanese representatives believe that all citizens of the world should be treated equally," Huang said when explaining the proposal to the assembly. "Taiwan should not be denied entry to the UN given its mature democracy and China's military threat. Instead, it should be regarded as the best model of democracy and freedom," she said.

  Director of the DPP's department of youth development Chou Yung-hong (周永鴻) called the support from the IFLRY, a non-government international umbrella organization of liberal and radical youth organizations, "a great act for the public good" following China's suppression of Liberal International (LI) in the UN.

  The UN's Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) under the Economic and Social Council resolved on Friday to suspend the consultative status of LI for a period of one year.

  The resolution was the result of a proposal by China after the LI arranged for Taiwan's Examination Yuan President Yao Chia-wen (姚嘉文) to give a speech at the UN Human Rights Council in March, during which he advocated Taiwan's membership of the WHO.

  A press release posted on the Web site of the NGOs committee on May 18 said China claimed the "LI had severely abused its status on March 4 by helping a ranking official from China's Province of Taiwan to gain access to a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council."

  Director of DPP's Department of International Affairs Lai I-chung (賴怡忠) yesterday said he regretted the UN's resolution to strip the LI of its consultative status.

  He condemned China as being the country that was behind the resolution.

  Lai said the UN resolution showed that "gaining UN membership using the name Taiwan is urgent" for the nation.

  He said there was nothing inappropriate about the LI inviting Yao to address the council as the organization's representative because the DPP is also a member of the LI.

  Taiwan's WHO bid was among the many human rights issues the Taiwanese representative addressed that day, he said.

  Lai said the UN resolution against the LI was much more serious than Taiwan losing diplomatic allies, and "requesting Taiwan's entry to the UN and forcing the UN to face the fact that the Taiwanese people are not represented [in the UN] has become Taiwan's only way out."
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