TAIWAN'S PARTICIPATION IN WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION

EDM number 1257 in 2008-09, proposed by Nicholas Winterton on 01/04/2009.
Categorised under the topics of Asia, Health education and preventive medicine and International organisations.

That this House regrets that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has opposed including Taiwan's participation as an observer to the World Health Assembly (WHA) on its agenda since 1997; notes that the 62nd WHA will convene between 18 and 27 May 2009; recognises that disease knows no boundaries and there should be no gap in the global public health network; contends that the WHO should not ignore the health rights of the 23 million people of Taiwan; applauds the valuable medical assistance and humanitarian aid provided by Taiwan's public and private sectors worldwide exceeding US$450 million over the last decade; applauds President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan having improved the cross-Taiwan Strait relations while effectively safeguarding Taiwan's sovereignty since assuming office on 20 May 2008; welcomes WHO's recent inclusion of Taiwan in the mechanisms of the International Health Regulations; further notes that the Mainline Chinese leadership has recently expressed certain goodwill in Taiwan's bid for WHA observer status; urges mainland China to play a positive role further in Taiwan's participation in international organisations where Taiwan wishes to make a contribution; regrets that the UK Government has only supported Taiwan's meaningful participation in the WHO rather than Taiwan's WHA observer status; strongly encourages the UK Government to support Taiwan's justifiable bid for WHA observer status to institutionalise Taiwan's meaningful participation in WHO activities; and urges the WHO Director-General to invite Taiwan on its own merits as a WHA observer to ensure no gap in the global public health network.

This motion has been signed by a total of 31 MPs.