FAPA Europe is organizing a letter drive on the WHO issue. Details in email below.++++++++++++++++
Dear Friends:
As you know, Taiwan is actively seeking to join the WHO (World Health Organization), and this May 19th to 24th, the annual World Health Assembly meeting will be held in Geneva....If you have friends or relatives who are also fluent in English, French, German, Greek or whichever European language (such as university students in Taiwan majoring in foreign languages, or friends and relatives living in N. America or Europe), please encourage them to write to their foreign affairs ministers. It is every citizen's responsibility to stand up for his country especially with the difficult situation Taiwan finds itself now, relying on government officials to do all diplomatic missions are just not enough. Please join us by starting your own WHO letter campaign today.
A sample letter:
Dear XX, Minister of Foreign Affairs:
Re: Disease Prevention without Borders
In the coming World Health Assembly (WHA) meeting, Taiwan will again seek World Health Organization (WHO) membership application as well as WHA observer status, such admittance is long overdue and we hope you will support Taiwan's efforts wholeheartedly.
Since the 2005 secret MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) between China and the WHO, Taiwan has received only 16 of 231 public health notifications issued by the WHO. Taiwan was notified of only 40 of more than 1,000 WHO technical meetings and allowed to attend only nine of those. The MOU therefore indeed blocked Taiwan's meaningful participation in the WHO activities instead of its original intention.
Because China has a history of covering up the severity of epidemic spread and diseases within its own borders, if there is any delay in epidemic reporting or statistics misrepresentation, there will be dispute on which side causes the problem. The current WHO's procedures of informing Taiwan all health-related issues under the MOU guidelines are totally unacceptable. For example, last September in which Thailand exported contaminated baby corn, resulting in severe illness in some countries, but Taiwan's public health authorities were not informed by the WHO until much later than other countries. Therefore, Taiwan's representation in the WHO has to be completely independent from China's involvement, not to mention about the fact that China has never governed Taiwan for a single day since its foundation.
In the era of increasing globalization, the exclusion of Taiwan from the WHO poses a large danger for everyone, including citizens of your country. We cannot afford to leave Taiwan out of the loop in combating the threats posed by epidemics. Global responses to infectious diseases need to be speedy and well-coordinated by all nations, as epidemic spread is not confined to national boundaries.
The WHO Constitution enshrines the principle that the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being. If your government is serious about promoting the fundamental rights of all people, then it must support Taiwan's integration into the global health community in a meaningful manner, independent from China's unethical demands, and your health officials should actively supervise the operation of the WHO so that the WHO, with its current Chinese Director General, is carrying out the mission of the WHO, not the political agenda of the Chinese government.
Another WHO campaign letter sample is found here but it's best to change it slightly,
Where to send your e-mails:
Norway
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Denmark
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Sweden
http://www.sweden.gov.se/sb/d/2085
email to Carl Bildt, via the senior registry clerk
Finland
Alexander Stubb astubb@europarl.eu.int
Ireland
http://foreignaffairs.gov.ie/home/index.aspx?id=8596
UK msu.correspondence@fco.gov.uk
The Rt Hon David Miliband, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
Greece
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
For other countries in EU, please check out the portal by clicking on each flag in the map http://e-uprava.gov.si/e-uprava/en/evropa.euprava, then click on the state's portal
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I think the sample letter is pretty good, since it connects WHO policy to the secret memorandum of understanding between China and WHO that supposedly provides for Taiwan to participate as "Taiwan, China" but which in reality appears to prevent Taiwan from participating.
[Taiwan]
4 comments:
I have written a letter to Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs about this.
Wouldn't it be more effective for FAPA to make a simple humanitarian plea to WHO members without sending said members anti-China spam?
Like I've always observed, with friends like FAPA, Taiwanese independence doesn't need any enemies.
Reality check: the only way Taiwan will have any representation in the WHO is to convince the world that Tawian is applying for humanitarian reasons alone and not to use the WHO to further a separtist agenda.
No place to send to for the US? :)
Thanks for Anonymous’ comments, FAPA Europe does not want to generate mass WHO campaign mails to burden the mail boxes of the European FA ministers , therefore had invited people with foreign language skills and concerns for universal health rights to write. A few letters from some groups of health professionals, or from some groups of student or teacher organizations will suffice the purpose. Sending out the sample letter without editing your own should be avoided as it is counter-productive. There was no anti-China sentiment as we only stated with statistics that the MOU was not a workable solution for Taiwan’s “meaningful participation”. No mention of where to send mails for USA as FAPA Europe lobbies within the Europe continent, and that info can be easily obtained.
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