Louise Arbour, winner of the Tang Prize in rule of law this year, yesterday said that it makes sense for Taiwan to have a seat in international organizations such as the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), where the participation of every nation is important.
Arbour, who received the award at a ceremony in Taipei on Sunday, made the comment during a discussion session after giving a speech at National Taiwan University on the rule of law.
When asked during the discussion to comment on Taiwan’s exclusion from this year’s ICAO Assembly in Canada, the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. and Supreme Court of Canada judge, said Taiwan has a strong case for inclusion in organizations where international interest in universal participation in high.
“This is why I find it surprising that in the field of international aviation, that there could be an exclusion of a player,” she said.
“It doesn’t make a lot of sense to use political principles or rules or interests in keeping out partners who need to be enlisted for the greater good,” Arbour said.
“Whatever the method of accommodating Taiwan having a seat at the table, I think it makes sense,” she said.
Meanwhile, in a commentary published by online magazine The Diplomat, David Sutton, a research analyst at the NATO Association of Canada, said the ICAO’s decision to not invite Taiwan to its general assembly due to Chinese pressure is against international principles and the best interests of aviation safety.
Excluding Taiwan from the 39th ICAO Assembly, which was scheduled to open yesterday in Montreal, was the result of a wider campaign of pressure by Beijing to isolate Taiwan from the international community, he said.
The move violates the UN spirit of developing friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, Sutton said in a commentary.
“China, or any other country, should not dictate world affairs on the basis of threats, particularly when it is contrary to the spirit of cooperation and constructive progress,” he said.
He said Taiwan’s highly developed and globalized economy is a sizable contributor to air traffic and would affect or be affected by any changes to regulations by which it currently abides.
As Taiwan was invited to attend the last ICAO Assembly in 2013, there is no reason its participation should not continue, he said.
“If Taiwan’s delegation is not welcomed in Montreal this week, it will be another unfortunate precedent of Beijing’s unnecessary and unconstructive interference in a global regulatory body to the determent of unified progress and cooperation,” Sutton said.
The coast guard drove away 567 Chinese boats and seized seven illegally operating in Taiwanese waters in the first six months of this year, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. They mostly operated near Kinmen and Penghu counties, resulting in fines totaling NT$1.7 million (US$52,440), it said. Three ships — two near Kinmen County and one near Penghu County — were detained in January for illegally crossing the border, while one ship each was detained near Kinmen in February and Penghu in March respectively, it said. The ship seized near Penghu in January was the Yun Ao (雲澳), detained by the CGA’s
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
FLU CONTINUES: Hospitals reported 101,091 visits for flu-like illnesses last week, while 68 severe cases and 16 flu-related deaths were also reported, the CDC said The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported 932 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and 64 related deaths for last week, adding that the number of people who had contracted new SARS-CoV-2 subvariants KP.2 and LB.1 has increased. The number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 increased from 815 in the previous week to 932 last week, while 90 percent of the 64 deceased were aged 65 or older, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. JN.1 was still the dominant variant among local and imported cases in the past four weeks, while KP.2 was the second-most common, Lin said. Cases with the LB.1 subvariant
Beijing’s recent provocative actions against the Philippines in the South China Sea were partly meant as a “dress rehearsal” for the invasion of Taiwan, former US deputy national security advisor Matt Pottinger said at a Heritage Foundation forum in Washington on Tuesday. Beijing’s blocking of a Philippine resupply mission on June 17 with unprecedented violence had multiple implications. “What they’re doing is trying to demonstrate that they can blockade, create a sense of futility and discredit the idea that the United States is going to help not only the Philippines, but by extension Taiwan,” Pottinger said. Pottinger was referring to a clash