China has been in the news for the wrong reasons lately. In recent months, the international press has criticized the government of the People’s Republic of China for its violent suppression of the lamas and peaceful demonstrators in Tibet and for trampling on human rights.
Now it is time for the international community to put a stop to another violation of human rights — the exclusion of Taiwan from the WHO for purely political reasons — an exclusion that grossly undercuts the health security of its people.
In May 2005, the World Health Assembly (WHA) — the governing body of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) — enacted a thoroughly revised set of International Health Regulations (IHR). This marked a significant milestone in the history of cooperative efforts of governments to counter the increasing risk of cross-border spread of infectious diseases. Not the least reason for this appraisal is the addition to the IHR (2005) of Paragraph 3, Article 3, which reads as follows:
“The implementation of these Regulations shall be guided by the goal of their universal application for the protection of all people of the world from the international spread of disease.”
The insertion of this “universal application clause” was motivated by the resolve of WHO member states to remove political barriers to comprehensive implementation of the regulations. It was aimed at empowering the WHO to communicate and cooperate with “all people of the world” regardless of whether they are citizens of member states.
The Taiwanese people welcomed this amendment to the IHR and looked forward to close cooperation with the WHO in IHR-related affairs. However, the WHO Secretariat has continued to spurn Taiwan’s participation in cooperative efforts to implement the regulations, leaving a dangerous vacuum in the disease prevention network.
The stated reason for the refusal is that Taiwan is not a member of the World Health Organization (WHO). This is a clear indication that the Taiwanese people’s health rights and their right to know are being violated on political grounds. This runs contrary to the global understanding that the UN is obliged to uphold justice.
Taiwan is home to 23 million democracy-loving people (more populous than three quarters of WHO member states) and is one of the world’s busiest international transportation and shipping hubs. Every year, some 150,000 international flights carrying over 22 million air passengers pass through the Taipei Flight Information Region, and over 50,000 ships carrying hundreds of millions of tons of cargo traverse its territorial waters.
A sizable proportion of that traffic transits through Taiwan’s airports and seaports. Hence, Taiwan must be acknowledged as a critical node in any credible global disease monitoring and prevention network — as the frightening SARS epidemic of 2003 so tragically illustrated.
WHO leaders have failed to act in line with their avowed goal of pushing for universal application of the IHR. On the eve of the WHA’s enactment of the IHR (2005), the WHO Secretariat signed a secret memorandum of understanding (MOU) with China wherein, reportedly, it promised that the WHO would not communicate with Taiwan’s health authorities on any matter, or invite them to take part in any WHO activity, without China’s consent.
The MOU was characterized as a measure that would facilitate communication between the WHO and Taiwan in compliance with the IHR (2005), based on the premise that China has the legal authority, ability, and willingness to look after Taiwan’s health affairs. Unfortunately, the reality of the situation says it’s not so.
Politically, Taiwan and China are separate entities that do not exercise jurisdiction over each other’s territories, although they share confusingly similar official names — the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China, respectively. China, therefore, cannot legitimately represent Taiwan’s people in the international community.
In its present condition, China is barely able to cope with its own public health problems, let alone take care of Taiwan’s health interests. Moreover, events have shown that China has used the MOU to delay, rather than facilitate, implementation of the IHR with respect to Taiwan.
Taiwan should play a more dominant role in the cooperative fight against the international spread of diseases. With the approach of the May 19-24 meeting of the World Health Assembly, WHO member states should call for an end to the secret dealings that prevent Taiwan’s participation in issues that concern its people.
In an issue concerning the health of 23 million Taiwanese, let political expediency take a back seat, and allow the people of Taiwan the right to be members of the WHO and partake of all its privileges.
