Taiwanese President opens the LI Conference on Human Rights and the CALD General Assembly

(December 8, 2007/ Taipei, Taiwan) H.E. Chen Shui-bian, President of Taiwan, delivered his welcome address today at the Taipei International Convention Center to formally open the Liberal International (LI) Conference on Human Rights and CALD General Assembly. President Chen is the current chair of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the former chair of CALD, assuming the post from 2004-2005.

In his welcome remarks, he said “LI and CALD have played a positive role in helping to strengthen and consolidate Taiwan’s democracy and in maintaining peace in the region…we will continue to work hard with Taiwan’s best friends, LI and CALD, for the freedom, democracy, peace, and security of all people.”

Lord John Alderdice, LI president, and Mr. Hubertus von Welck, FNF regional director for East and Southeast Asia, also gave their welcome remarks on behalf of LI and FNF respectively, stressing the importance of sustaining the dialogue among the liberal organizations and reminding the assembly of the crucial roles that these networks play in fighting for the cause of democracy and human rights.

Hon. Franklin M. Drilon, CALD chair, delivered his welcome speech on behalf of the CALD member parties and reiterated the call on parliamentarians to “relentlessly pursue policies that will eliminate crimes against humanity (and)…as deeply committed Liberals, we must collectively defend human rights at all cost.”

This three-day conference, with the theme “Strengthening Networks and Combating Human Trafficking”, is organized by LI and CALD, hosted by DPP and supported by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF) for Liberty and the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD).

This is the already the fourth joint-project of LI and CALD following the 2004 LI Asian Conference in Kaohsiung, Taiwan which focused on democratic consolidation and the role of political parties, the 2005 LI Women’s Workshop and CALD General Assembly with the theme “Advancing Women in Politics”, and the 2006 ALDE-CALD-LI meeting in Manila, Philippines which tackled issues on population, immigration and the globalization of labor.

High profile speakers from across Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe converged to discuss the imperative institutional approaches to human rights and the rising global concern on human trafficking. Among the speakers are Baroness Falkner of Margravine, Liberal Democrat peer from the House of Lords in the United Kingdom, Hon. Andrej Zernovski, MP, deputy leader of the Liberal Democratic Party in Macedonia, Ambassador M. Nagui ElGhatrifi, executive member of the Network of Arab Liberals, Lord Russell Johnston, president of ALDE group in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Hon. Tina Acketoft, MP, deputy for the Parliamentary Assembly Council of Europe andmember of the Liberal Party of Sweden, Tan Sri Dr. Chin Fook Weng, senator from the Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia, Hon. Lorenzo Tanada III, MP, chairman of the Human Rights Committee of the Philippine House of Representatives and member of the Liberal Party, Ambassador Kasit Piromya, director for International Affairs of the Democrat Party of Thailand and advisor to the party leader, and Cambodian members of parliament from the Sam Rainsy Party, Hon. Sam Rainsy, Hon. Saumura Tioulong and Hon. Son Chhay.

Please click here for more information.

Categorised in: News Article

This post was written by CALD