[quote]On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the full text of which appears in the following pages. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and “to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories.”
[/quote]
un.org/Overview/rights.html
As I noticed you marked “China” red, it should be pointed out that the then time Chinese representatives to the UN were sent by the nationalist, Chiang Kai-shek ROC government which later moved to Taiwan, and not by the in 1949 established PRC goverment. This does not imply that Mr. Chiang Kai-shek is well known for his respect for human rights though…
You mean “went into exile on Taiwan.”
Any chance of putting this thread on top permanently?
Why? You haven’t even made a point.
Just to give this thread some substance let me mention something about one of Greaseball’s (which is my fond name for our current president in exile) long forgotten human rights promises; his promise to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. He made this promise many years ago when the DPP was still getting political mileage out of the human rights fad.
Fast forward about six years to last week when I was having lunch with a local attorney who is also a human rights advocate. I asked him what the hell ever happened on the ratification of the ICCPR. He said it stalled in the Legislative Yuan over two concerns. First the legislators (across the political board) were worried that many provisions of the domestic law would have to be amended to comply with the ICCPR (which is true) and they could not be bothered with all that bother. Second, that the KMT legislative hacks were worried that the ICCPR provisions regarding self determination would be used by the Pro-Independence lunatic fringe as some kind of political ammo (also likely to be true).
So it lies collecting dust over at the Legislative Yuan. And the end of this session it will be thrown in the trash and unless someone resubmits it that will be the end of that.
Then the attorney I was talking to and I had a good laugh envisioning a couple of the MOFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) drones getting dragged out of the UN lobby and thrown in the street in downtown New York by the building “rent a cops” after they make a typical Taiwanese scene insisting on depositing (the final technical step a real nation-not Taiwan-must go through after a UN treaty has been ratified) Taiwan
[quote=“brianlkennedy”]
Dr. Brian
Official Member (really!) of the Executive Yuan Human Rights Commission
Our motto: No meetings, no boredom, no results, all show.[/quote]
Dear Dr. Brian -
What hoops must one jump through to be appointed the Tainan representative of your august Commission.
I would, of course, be operating w/out portfolio and functioning in a strictly ambiguous manner.
My adherence to protocol, and qualifications as a world renowned boulevardier, are without equal.
With suitable lapel pin,
TainanCowboy
Tainan Cowboy, the honest truth is I do not know how I got on the Bored. I got in the mail about two years ago a nice big official document (mucho seals, chops and all the rest). When my wife read it she started cracking up laughing because I guess the certificate was written in very old style “high flown” classical chinese ("we beg you brilliant eminence to help us dispel the darkness of our ignornace on Human Rights…and beating our heads a thousand times at your door gate to ask you to serve…and so forth).
Well when she got through laughing about that-Grand Scholar Brian’s invite-she settled down enought to tell me what the deal was. All we could really divine was that it was an Executive Yuan committee and I had a one year term. I…along with about 80 other people (two other foreigners).
Then a year later (this year) I got a renewal letter saying I had been appointed for another year…I presume based on my sterling performance last year.
Now seriously what the deal seems to be is the Executive Yuan wanted to form a committee as part of Greasball’s Big Human Right Push. So they brainstorm for names–mine comes up and I am on the list. Like 99% of all ROC government committees we do absolutely nothing except exist on a piece of paper somewhere.
So as to how you can join-----I have no idea because I am not sure how I joined.
take care,
Dr. BK
Ghost Member at Large
Yeah, Greasball is batting 1.000; not one of those things promised got done.
I will let you in on a little Taiwan historical trivia; Greaseball does not, nor did he give a fuck about any of the three items. What the deal was, was ghost writer “X” (one of the team that ghost wrote Greaseballs big inaugural speech) who was a human rights advocate insisted that Greaseball should include the human rights angle as a major angle in the speech. Greaseball himself just wanted to “look good” (which is fine in a sense, that is all politicos anywhere in the world want). So in it all went. I came to know all this because at the 11th hour (as is typical with the ROC government) they wanted an english translation. So on about two hours notice I and ghost writer “X” sat down and did that portion of it. While ghost writer “X” puffed through a pack of ciggs he told me the story on it.
In fairness I should mention that Greasball’s inability to get any of these projects through is not entirely his fault. The clown show which is the Legislative Yuan is utterly fucking hopeless. The only way for Taiwan to really move forward as a democracy is-----to reimpose martial law and abolish the Legislative Yuan. You may think I am kidding but I am not. Politics is a paradox.
Grand Generalissmo Chaing Kai Brian
Restorer of the Mandate of Heaven
The first step would be passing the constitutional reforms, but now it’s looking as though that may not happen, with both the PFP and TSU people backing away from their original position of supporting the changes. The Legislative Yuan is way too large, and there are way too many incompetent clowns (and criminals) in there that couldn’t give a rat’s ass about what is good for Taiwan.
[quote=“Eric W. Lier”][quote] The Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and “to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories.”
[/quote]
I’m still a little mystified by Lier’s point on this one, and everyone else’s replies. But here’s my two cents anyway. The declaration called upon ‘Member countries’ which Taiwan isn’t because they won’t let them in. So Taiwan has not been ‘called on’ to disseminate etc. the declaration, even though (paradoxically) the Assembly calls upon countries to do this without distinction based on their political status. What I guess this means is that member states should promulgate the Declaration regardless of their political status, unless their political status prevents them from actually being members, in which case they can do as they please.
I’m not going to get into a rant here, but there’s probably a degree of truth in what Brian said about the KMT hacks getting hot under the collar about the self-determination bit. In addition, the DPP may not want to endorse the self-determination bit either, lest China (who manifestly won’t promulgate the Declaration regardless of a territority’s political status) take this as an excuse to blow us all out of the water. There’s also the moot point that self-determination is the one collective (as opposed to individual) right in the declaration, and this gives everyone a bit of a headache. But Taiwan has a history of being a country when it wants to (World Trade Organisation agreements, ASEAN trade agreements) and of not being one when it doesn’t suit it (Kyoto, anything else which doesn’t immediately generate tangible economic benefits and may in fact cost somebody a few bucks.) That’s not to say that having legitimacy conferred upon a nation (or state) means that they won’t do the same thing (the US abrogating Kyoto, UN resolutions in Iraq etc.; the EU trying to lift an arms ban on China despite little progress made in human rights, etc.) but it does go some way to explaining the paradox.
I think there’s another point here directly related to the Declaration. Given that the Declaration is drafted - broadly speaking - according to liberal democratic principles, Taiwan would have a bit of a headache implementing this within such a framework. In particular, it would expose them to the obligation to not treat foreign workers as second-class citizens and confer rights to all individuals within the territory. Secondly, it would also force them to stop dithering on legislation which would truly prevent discrimination against Taiwanese minority groups (gays, women, aborigines) and - once again - this would prove more costly than the current ‘lip-service’ paid to the issue so that Chen can carry on nation building and win votes.
In addition, any country which appoints its human rights committee through non-transparent, undemocratic, unseen-hands-in-the-corridoors-of-power-type processes is unlikely to be that concerned about the spirit of human rights and more worried about whether it looks like they’re concerned with such a spirit …
I make this to be the five permanent Security Council members, plus three others … anyone know if this has a bearing on anything? Of course China signed it … China wouldn’t try and block it. Whether they actually implement it or snigger into their sleeves as they maintain their control on power is a different matter.
Sorry for the long post!
Oops …
Sorry, just realised that Eric’s original post refers to the 1948 declaration and not anything done recently, so my post isn’t directly related to his … but I think some of the points stand though …
Cheers!