International experts said yesterday that various international laws and acts had bestowed Taiwanese people with the right to self-determination and to decide their own future.
Academic Historica and the Preparatory Office of the National Human Rights Museum held a meeting yesterday dubbed the International Human Rights Roundtable: Rights for All, All for Rights."
They invited University of Houston Law Foundation professor Jordan Paust, International League for Human Rights president Scott Horton, senior adviser to the president Peng Ming-min (彭明敏) and presidential adviser Chen Chu-lung (陳志隆) as speakers.
Paust said that Taiwan's right to self-determination has its basis in international law.
"Both human rights and the related precept of self-determination of peoples are enshrined in the United Nations Charter and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights," Paust said.
Paust also stressed the physical reality of Taiwan's separation from China.
"Taiwan is physically separated from the mainland of China and has a population of some 23 million people who mainly consider themselves to be Taiwanese with their own independent political processes," Paust said.
He also pointed out if China used force to deny a people self-determination and human rights, it would violate the UN Charter and become a threat to international peace and security.
But Paust also joked that self-determination meant Taiwanese people had the right to choose to become oppressed by communists too.
Horton, meanwhile, said the war on terror had taken a toll on international humanitarian law.
"While invoking the mantle of human rights protection to justify its various military campaigns, the Bush administration is doing serious damage to international humanitarian law by asserting that somehow its conduct is always beyond the reach of that law," Horton said, citing the US violation of Geneva Conventions in its treatment of Taliban and al-Qaeda POWs.
"American policy is now captive to this very radical world view filled with fundamental hostility to the system of international humanitarian law," Horton said.
Peng said, "Over the past 400 years, Taiwan has been the subject of dispute over who has the right to the island, but the island itself has never had the right to say anything about itself.
"We want to be at peace with other countries, including China, but it's China that doesn't want to leave us alone," he said.
Peng said that the basic human rights of Taiwanese people, such as the right to elect the nation's president and the right to hold referendums, were all deemed provocative in China's eyes.
"Unfortunately the US government seems to agree with China's stand, and by doing so the US is giving the word `provocative' a new definition," Peng said.
Meanwhile, Chen called China's threat to use military force against Taiwan "a form of state terrorism."
Chen also said China's demands on Taiwan were unreasonable.
"Sovereignty nowadays means not ties to property but to people. China's concept of sovereignty is an outdated 18th or 19th century concept. Sovereignty should mean responsibility and a government that protects the human rights and welfare of the people," Chen said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS