One of the areas where Taiwan is constantly search for international recognition is in the World Health Organisation. Given the lack of success Taiwan has had in becoming a full member, it has also tried some alternative approaches to participating …
Four communities will become part of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) “Safe Communities Network” in an accreditation ceremony later this year.
Leif Svanstrom, head of the WHO’s Collaborating Center on Community Safety Promotion, will come to Taiwan in October to present certificates to representatives from Neihu (內湖), Tungshih (東勢), Alishan (阿里山) and Fengbin (豐濱), which have been granted membership of the network.
The Safe Communities initiative is a joint project by the WHO and the Karolinska Institute, Sweden. Most of the information about it is hosted on the Karolinska website which explains why it can get away with such outrageously subversive information as this one for Neihu:
Safe Community Neihu
Country: Taiwan
Number of inhabitants: 261,201
My current office is in Neihu, so it’s nice to know I’m working in a ‘safe community’ (although I do wonder how safe the raging fires outside almost every building today are).
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The fact is that Taiwan has never tried to gain full membership in the WHO, probably because it is impossible. The simple fact is that Taiwan would have to be an independent country, which it isn’t, or a protectorate of a member country, which it isn’t, to be considered for full membership.
Taiwan wants to be granted observer status in the World Health Assembly (WHA), the WHO’s decision-making body. This, in theory, is possible, although for reasons too detailed to go into here, highly improbable.
It is ironic that one of the founding members of the WHO was the Republic of China.