Taiwan NGOs:
Marching Towards the New Century
Lung-chu Chen
The New
Century Foundation and Asia-Pacific Public Affairs Forum (APPAF) jointly
held a conference on "Taiwan NGOs: Marching Towards the 21 Century" on
July 28 and 29. On the first day, the conference dealt with the issues
involved from general perspectives, discussing the developing role of NGOs
for global governance, and the role of and strategies for Taiwan NGOs. The
second day was concerned with specific areas including humanitarian
assistance and disaster relief, global environment, the role of business,
human rights protection, and international medical cooperation. More than
30 Taiwan NGOs participated in the conference, sharing one another's
experience, networking, which, hopefully, will contribute to the
implemention of all people's diplomacy.
Raising Taiwan's international position is the shared demands and
expectations of the Taiwanese people. In his inaugural address of May 20,
President Chen Shui-bian emphasized that besides strengthening the ties
with the existing friendly nations, the Taiwanese people should
participate more actively in NGOs' activities transnationally.
As civil society around the world expands and the trend toward global
governance increases, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have grown in
importance. For instance, Alliance of Doctors without Borders received the
Nobel Peace Prize in 1999 for their humanitarian contributions.
For Taiwan, NGOs are especially important for access to international
arenas. Because of China's opposition and coercion, Taiwan has been
virtually excluded from international governmental organizations. Thus,
Taiwan can play an active part in international arenas through NGOs in the
fields of human rights, environmental protection, medicare, humanitarian
assistance and so on.
Through such activities, Taiwan can find self-fulfillment, improve the
quality of value shaping and sharing, and establish a wide network of
human relations, thereby enhancing access to international governmental
organizations. The more Taiwanese people participate in NGO activities
transnationally, the better off the island nation of Taiwan will be in the
world community. |