The United Nations Violates the Taiwanese People’s Human Rights

The Chinese regime is counting on the success of its diplomatic strategy to render the Taiwanese people invisible and their aspirations for autonomy illegitimate in the eyes of the international community.

By Joseph A. Klein, CFP United Nations Columnist

The United Nations is celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (“UDHR”) this year. But when it comes to living up to key human rights set forth in the UDHR in its own operations, the UN has fallen far short under pressure from the Chinese Communist regime.

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” Article 2 states that “no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.”

The UN bureaucracy’s treatment of Taiwan’s nearly 24 million people as personae non gratae violates these fundamental human rights.

Taiwan has not been permitted to participate in any UN activities, including attendance as an observer at the World Health Organization’s annual forum at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Taiwan’s Health Minister Chen Shih-chung strongly objected. “As a professional international health body,” he said, “the World Health Organization should serve the health and welfare of all humanity and not capitulate to the political interests of a certain member.”

That “certain member” is obviously the Chinese Communist regime. It demands that Taiwanese citizens be excluded from participation in any UN bodies unless Taiwan accepts that it is part of “One China” ruled from Beijing.

Taiwanese reporters have not been allowed to attend UN press briefings to ask questions. Even Taiwanese tourists who lack an official government ID issued by a UN member state are prohibited from entering the UN premises to take a visitors’ tour. IDs issued by the Taiwanese government do not count although Taiwanese passports are good enough for entry into the UN’s host country, the United States.

The UN human rights Geneva office, of all places, discriminated against a Taiwanese professor and three students in violation of their human rights under Article 2 of the UDHR by denying them permission to visit its public gallery. The Hong Kong Free Press, reporting on this incident in 2017, noted that when the professor met the next day with Director-General Michael Møller of the UN’s Geneva office to seek an explanation, she was told that “the situation with Taiwanese visitors changed because of the ‘one China policy.’” The professor wanted to know whether this means “that everyone not from a UN member state… [like] exiles and stateless people, will not have any chance to seek help? Then what is the point of your OHCHR [Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights]?” Good question, which neither the Director-General nor any other UN official has been able to answer.

The Hong Kong Free Press itself may not remain truly free much longer as China’s national security law increases its stranglehold on freedom of the press and expression in Hong Kong.