Taiwan's application for UN membership represents the political will to self-determination of all Taiwanese people, and the UN, the US and the international community should support the idea that the nation belongs in the UN, US academics said yesterday.
As Article 55 of the UN Charter stipulates that the organization respects self-determination of peoples and promotes human rights, the UN General Assembly and the Secretariat have no right to reject Taiwan's application, Jordan Paust, a law professor at the University of Houston, said in an address to a conference on Taiwan's UN application hosted by the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy in Taipei yesterday.
"Taiwan functions as an independent state and it is time for Taiwanese self-determination to ripen into a far more widely recognized statehood status for Taiwan and membership in the United Nations," he said.
PHOTO: HUANG MING-TANG, TAIPEI TIMES
Citing Article 55 and Article 100 of the UN Charter, which states that the Secretary-General and the staff "shall refrain from any action which might reflect on their position as international officials responsible only to the Organization," Paust accused the UN Secretariat of violating its mandate when it returned Taiwan's application in July.
President Chen Shui-bian (
Chen's letter to the UN General Assembly protesting Ban's move earlier this month was also rejected.
Paust condemned the UN General Assembly and the Secretariat, and said that China, as a member of the UN, had no authority to deny Taiwanese people self-determination and human rights by vetoing the nation's membership application.
Although the International Court of Justice has not found any Security Council decision to be ultra vires ("beyond its powers") under the Charter, Paust said that Taiwan should ask its allies to demand that the UN General Assembly request an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on the propriety of a particular decision of the Council or an attempted veto by one of its permanent members.
Joining Paust in support of Taiwan's application, Dennis Hickey, a professor of international affairs at Missouri State University, called on US President George W. Bush's administration to employ "quiet diplomacy" and assist Taiwan with its UN application.
"The US should gently nudge other countries, including China, toward the idea that Taiwan belongs in the UN -- if only as an observer or non-state actor," he said.
As a creative strategy to help Taiwan be accepted as a UN member, Hickey urged the US to have other countries introduce a resolution to support Taiwan's participation as an "observer" under the name of "Chinese Taipei" at the same time when Taiwan submitted its proposal to join the UN as "Taiwan."
While the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) UN application may be rejected, the resolution should be a solution to resolve the thorny Taiwan representation issue and create a "win-win-win" situation for Chen's government, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and China, Hickey said.
"Any resolution will require new thinking, compromise and multilateral cooperation among numerous governments," he said.
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
Fast food chain McDonald's is to raise prices by up to NT$5 on some products at its restaurants across Taiwan, starting on Wednesday next week, the company announced today. The prices of all extra value meals and sharing boxes are to increase by NT$5, while breakfast combos and creamy corn soup would go up by NT$3, the company said in a statement. The price of the main items of those meals, if ordered individually, would remain the same. Meanwhile, the price of a medium-sized lemon iced tea and hot cappuccino would rise by NT$3, extra dipping sauces for chicken nuggets would go up
Yangmingshan National Park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) nature area has gone viral after a park livestream camera observed a couple in the throes of intimate congress, which was broadcast live on YouTube, drawing large late-night crowds and sparking a backlash over noise, bright lights and disruption to wildlife habitat. The area’s livestream footage appeared to show a couple engaging in sexual activity on a picnic table in the park on Friday last week, with the uncensored footage streamed publicly online. The footage quickly spread across social media, prompting a tide of visitors to travel to the site to “check in” and recreate the
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
RSS