Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/04/02
By: Shih Hsiu-chuan 

Taipei, April 2 (CNA) Gro Harlem Brundtland recalled Monday how as director-general of the World Health Organization she sent experts to Taiwan to help with its efforts to contain severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003 despite opposition from China.

Brundtland, who headed the WHO from 1998 to 2003, said the body faced some challenges in its dealings on the Taiwan issue because it is a United Nations organization and had to follow the U.N.’s principles related to participation and rights.

As WHO director-general, however, she had the responsibility entrusted to her by the WHO Constitution to take action on behalf of global health, she recalled.

When SARS broke out in southern China in late 2002, Brundtland said she had a chance to argue the health case and say, “we need every country to be on board in each local area” to deal with the global situation.    [FULL  STORY]