The UN Human Rights Council apologized on Friday for giving a
Taiwanese official access to a regular session of the body and
pledged to prevent a repetition of "such infractions of UN rules"
in the future.
Yao Chia-wen, head of Taiwan's "Examination Yuan," unexpectedly
appeared and spoke for two minutes on Thursday at the fourth
regular session of the Human Rights Council, which was being held
in the Palace of Nations in Geneva.
The incident drew a protest from the Chinese delegation
participating in the meeting.
According to the Secretariat of the meeting, Yao was registered
by the Liberal International, a non-governmental organization with
a Taiwan background.
In a statement, the 47-nation body said that the Taiwanese
official "was not the holder of appropriate identity documents" and
should have been refused access to the meeting room according to
normal application procedures of the UN.
"The Secretariat and the UNOG (UN Office in Geneva) wish to
apologize for this particular situation and the error made in
delivering a badge to this person," said the statement.
"We have taken steps to withdraw the relevant statement (made by
Yao) and references to it from the extranet, the web-cast and the
press release."
It added that further investigation would be made on the
incident and measures would be taken "in order to preclude such
infractions of UN rules from occurring in the future."
Addressing Friday's meeting of the Human Rights Council, the
Chinese delegation stressed that Taiwan is an inseparable part of
China and Liberal International's talking about Taiwan's so-called
status in the World Health Organization was in violation of UN
rules.
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It also urged the UN to investigate and punish the organization for
abusing its rights to participate in the work of the Human Rights
Council.
(Xinhua News Agency April 2, 2007)
