A few days ago, Paraguayan President Santiago Pena in statements through a French press agency said that Paraguay recognizes Taiwan’s right to self-determination as a nation, and that the relationship between Paraguay and Taiwan has lasted for 67 years and there are no plans to change it.
This forceful affirmation by the Guarani chief executive clearly indicates the firmness of relations between the two states and that they have solid links, which make it last over time. The right to self-determination is the right of people to decide their own forms of government, and pursue economic, social and cultural development, as well as to structure their countries freely, without external interference and in accordance with the principle of equity.
Self-determination is enshrined in the International Covenants on Human Rights, as well as in numerous resolutions of the UN General Assembly, which refer to this principle and develop it. It is a fundamental principle of public international law and a right of peoples, which is inalienable and generates obligations erga omnes for states, that is mandatory for everyone. According to many authors, self-determination has become a norm of jus cogens.
The right to self-determination is classified as a third-generation human right. The International Court of Justice, in its advisory opinion on the problem of Western Sahara, had said that it was a collective right owned by the peoples. The theory of representative government holds a definition of people that gives the right of self-determination universal scope. It affirms that the population of a state must decide its government in the free exercise of popular sovereignty.
Paraguay has also signed the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States of 1933, which clearly sets out the four criteria for statehood: a permanent population, a defined territory, a government and the capacity to enter into relations with other states. Taiwan undoubtedly possesses all these requirements at present.
Today, Paraguay is one of Taiwan’s staunchest advocates in international forums, demonstrating that this diplomatic relationship has become a stone clause of the foreign policies of both nations.
Carlos Jose Fleitas Rodriguez is the Paraguayan ambassador to the Republic of China (Taiwan).
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