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By Wen-Tsang Cheng
Minister, Government Information Office
“Republic of China” (Taiwan)
With Taiwan’s bids to gain
observer status in the World Health Assembly (WHA) over the past 10
years, and growing hopes for meaningful participation in related
technical conferences, there is increasing support both at home and
in the international community for Taiwan’s participation in the
World Health Organization (WHO). A recent opinion poll indicates
that 95 percent of Taiwanese citizens believe Taiwan should seek
formal WHO membership under the name “Taiwan.” With a renewed
bid for WHO observership this year, Taiwan is also pushing for WHO
membership to help ensure the health and security of its 23 million
people, as well as to create a complete global disease control
system.
Based on the statement in the WHO
Constitution, that “the enjoyment of the highest attainable
standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human
being,” the organization has previously granted membership or
observer status to a number of nonstate entities. These include the
Holy See, the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Sovereign Order
of Malta, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and most
recently, the Cook Islands, a self-governing state in free
association with New Zealand. And yet the democratic nation of
Taiwan, home to the 16th-largest economy in the world, continues to
be excluded from the WHO. This clearly contradicts the founding
principles of the organization.
Over 40 years ago, the WHO helped
Taiwan eradicate infectious diseases such as malaria, for which the
Taiwanese people will forever be grateful. However, since it was
ostracized from the organization in 1972, Taiwan has received
limited foreign assistance in the area of health. Despite this,
Taiwan’s health system has reached world-class standards, and the
Economist has ranked Taiwan the second healthiest nation in the
world.
In the past decade, Taiwan has
readily done its share for the international community, providing
over 90 countries with more than US$300 million in medical aid and
humanitarian relief. Since its establishment in February 2006,
Taiwan International Health Action (TaiwanIHA) has participated
vigorously in global health-care efforts, supported by both
governmental and private medical resources. In March 2006 TaiwanIHA
provided medical assistance to the Philippines in the aftermath of a
devastating mudslide. The following month, it sent experts and
supplied medical resources to Burkina Faso to help fight an outbreak
of avian flu. In May a team of TaiwanIHA experts arrived in
Indonesia to provide medicine and healthcare to earthquake victims
in Yogyakarta. Participation in the WHO would enable Taiwan to
deliver such medical aid and relief services much more effectively.
The importance major
international bodies place on health issues is obvious: all eight of
the Millennium Development Goals announced by the United Nations in
2000 were directly or indirectly related to health. In 2006 the four
core challenges identified by the WHO included the HIV/AIDS epidemic
and new flu pandemics. Following the severe impact of the SARS
attack, the WHO revised its International Health Regulations (IHR)
in 2005 in order to strengthen disease prevention and ensure public
health. Finally, the incorporation of the principle of “universal
application” in the new IHR indicates that health has become an
issue of global importance, given that neither politics nor national
demarcations can stop the threat of infectious diseases spreading
between peoples and continents.
Lying on a major transportation
route in the West Pacific, Taiwan has significant interaction with
the wider world. It maintains close relationships with its
neighboring countries, and enjoys extensive trade ties and important
links in the areas of tourism and transportation with European and
American countries. Taiwan’s actions during the 2003 SARS epidemic
show that Taiwan can act as an effective barrier to the spread of
unusual diseases, that otherwise have the potential to become global
pandemics. Several Asian countries have seen outbreaks of avian flu,
with a human mortality rate of over 60 percent. Taiwan remains the
only country in Asia not to have been afflicted by the disease.
However, because of its intensive exchanges with the more seriously
affected areas of Southeast Asia and China, the disease poses a
major risk to Taiwan and other nearby regions. The internationally
renowned medical journal, the Lancet, has published articles both
last year and this year underpinning the fact that it is purely due
to political reasons that Taiwan is unable to be a part of the
global disease prevention network. This situation means that a
sizable gap is created in the network, which only jeopardizes global
health security.
On the eve of the 2007 World
Health Assembly, we urge the international community to face up to
the issue of Taiwan’s prolonged exclusion from the global disease
prevention and control network. We ask that due importance be
accorded to the 23 million Taiwanese people’s fundamental right to
health, and due support extended to the active role Taiwan plays in
matters of global health.
In the light of medical and
health-care considerations, we call on the global community to adopt
a humanitarian standpoint; and bearing in mind the interests of the
world at large to help push for greater participation of Taiwan in
the WHO.
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