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.