Reviewing UN’s founding mission on Human Rights Day

Today is Human Rights Day 2009 and also the 30th anniversary of the Kaohsiung Incident which started Taiwan's gradual transformation into democracy.

Embrace diversity, end discrimination is clearly written on the UN's HR Day promotional poster. But, instead of protecting human rights, the UN prejudices against the people of Taiwan.

The UN discriminates the people born in Taiwan for its employment recruitments.

Plus it excludes Taiwanese from all kinds of universal rights such as health rights, and the WHO has no ways of implementing Taiwan’s meaningful participation without being a full member, nevertheless it continues to retain an advisor for the Director General who has no medical or public health background whatsoever.

The UN also facilitates to extinct the traditional writing form of Chinese.

I hope UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message is not only for window dressing.

"Discrimination targets individuals and groups that are vulnerable to attack: the disabled, women and girls, the poor, migrants, minorities, and all those who are perceived as different.

... But these victims of discrimination are not alone. The United Nations is standing with them, committed to defending the rights of all, and particularly the most vulnerable. That is our identity and our mission."

Therefore, there is a need to remind the UN officials the founding principles of the UN. Career diplomats should not just do lip service to dictators and the Chinese bully.

So, let me review the UN charter together with all the UN diplomats before they attempt to make their speeches.

Chapter I of the United Nations Charter lays out the purposes and principles of the United Nations organization. These principles include the equality and self-determination of nations and the obligation of member countries to obey the Charter, to cooperate with the UN Security Council and to use peaceful means to resolve conflicts.

The excerpt of Chapter I:

1. To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;

2. To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace

I support the concept of Shirin Ebadi, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, who advocates greater roles for human rights activists in UN’s Human Rights Council. Human rights should be respected on the day-to-day operations of the UN, and not just honored on a special occasion.