The Taiwan United Nations Alliance (TAIUNA) yesterday said its advocacy delegation would travel to Geneva, Switzerland, to voice support for Taiwan’s participate in the annual World Health Assembly (WHA).
The annual meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO is to be held from Monday next week to May 27 this year, but due to pressure from China, Taiwan has not been invited in the past eight years and has not received an invitation this year.
TAIUNA told a news conference in Taipei that its delegation would voice the message that “health is a human right, and Taiwan should not be excluded.”
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
After chanting “Taiwan can help” and “WHO for Taiwan,” TAIUNA representatives said they want to show the world Taiwan’s achievements in public health, health rights and disease prevention, as well as tell the WHA that the 23 million people of Taiwan should not be isolated from the global health system.
TAIUNA’s delegation representative Lee Yen-hui (李妍慧) said that delegation members from Taiwan would depart for Geneva today, while other members would set off from the US, the UK, Poland and other countries.
The delegation would participate in an exhibition at Geneva Cornavin railway station to promote Taiwan’s medical technology and healthcare achievements, attend a parade with overseas Taiwanese, and participate in a global health diplomacy summit held by the Taiwan Healthcare Youth Alliance, Lee said.
As Taiwan’s healthcare achievements, including in fighting COVID-19, have been recognized by the world, Taiwan’s participation in the WHA would not just be for its own benefit, but also to contribute to the global healthcare community, TAIUNA vice president Hung Chia-chun (洪嘉駿) said.
He called it a pity that China has consistently interfered to prevent Taiwan’s participation in the WHA in the past few years.
Beijing uses its “one China” principle to distort reality and claim Taiwan as a part of China, but it has no right to speak for Taiwan, nor to “harvest” Taiwan’s achievements, he said.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chiu Tai-yuan (邱泰源) last week said that as his ministry’s budget for foreign travel has been cut by 60 percent by opposition party lawmakers, its WHA Action Team would have to reduce its members by about one-third this year.
Additional reporting by CNA
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