To the member states
of the United Nations, the peoples and nations of the
world who love justice and peace, and to all churches
around the world.
On the eve of the
fifty-ninth anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and in the spirit of our
1977 Declaration on Human Rights and our 1985 Confession
of Faith, we declare：
Since the end of World
War II in 1945, colonized peoples of the world have been
exercising the basic human right of self-determination,
thus becoming independent nations. The 23 million people
of Taiwan remain the exception in that their inalienable
right to statehood has been ignored or even actively
opposed by member states of the United Nations. Clearly,
the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
has not been implemented worldwide. This overt neglect
is an injustice and an outright violation of the human
rights of the Taiwanese people.
Though the Taiwanese
people had been successively ruled by foreign colonial
powers, in 1996, they were able for the first time to
directly elect a president in a democratic procedure
that achieved a bloodless and peaceful revolution.
Moreover they were even able to complete a peaceful
transfer of power in 2000. A native Taiwanese
administration led by the Democratic Progressive Party
replaced the Chinese Nationalist （KMT） regime which had
implemented their colonial rule over Taiwan for several
decades by means of martial law. As a result of this
change the Taiwanese people today express a strong
demand to join the United Nations using the name
“Taiwan”.
However, China, the
superpower to the west of Taiwan, has repeatedly exerted
its emerging influence on the international community to
violate, suppress, and isolate Taiwan in a way that has
brutally oppressed the Taiwanese people and their
fundamental rights. Despite being grieved and incensed
by this degradation, we stand on the belief that human
rights are ordained by God and that Taiwan has the right
to membership in the United Nations so that the dignity
of the Taiwanese people will be upheld by the
international community.
Therefore we solemnly
make this appeal to the world. We urge all to
courageously support the Taiwanese people, who have been
left on the outside, and open the door to United Nations
membership so that hand in hand together we can promote
justice and peace throughout the world.
"The Lord has told
you, O man, what is good； and what does the Lord require
of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to
walk humbly with your God?" （Micah 6：8）
May God bless the
United Nations, peoples and churches around the world.
Amen.
The General Assembly
of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan
Moderator： Rev. Dr.
James Kheng-chiong Phoann
General Secretary：
Rev. Andrew Tek-khiam Tiunn
December 7, 2007
