On February 25th, 2021, the Global Committee for the Rule of Law “Marco Pannella” in cooperation with the Taipei Representative Office in Italy, hosted an impressive panel of politicians and activists on the front-line in developing global awareness and effective counter-measures to dealing with the authoritarian threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party to human rights and the rule of law not only in China, but also abroad.
The panel, featuring Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata (Ambassador, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, President Global Committee), Dr. Chung-Ching Chio (Superintendent Chi Mei Medical Center, Taiwan), Dr. Han-Siong Toh (Attending physician, Intensive Care Medicine, Chi Mei Hospital, Taiwan), Reinhard Buetikofer MEP (Chair European Parliament Delegation for Relations with the PRC, IPAC Co-Chair EP, EU/Germany), Dr. I-Chung Lai (President Prospect Foundation, Taiwan), Nathan Law (democracy activist and former Legislator, Hong Kong), Jonas Parello-Plesner (Executive Director Alliance of Democracies Foundation), Luke de Pulford (Founder and Director Arise Foundation, Founder Coalition for Genocide Response, Coordinator IPAC, United Kingdom), Roberto Rampi (Senator, IPAC Co-Chair, Italy), Ambassador Andrea Sing-Ying Lee (Taipei Representative Office in Italy), proposed a series of concrete recommendations to move forward:
- Do our homework: defending democracy and the rule of law starts at home.
- Work towards a more inclusive multilateralism and develop a truly global and comprehensive cooperation strategy capable of countering the CCP’s offer, not “Rally the West and forget about the rest”.
- Reinforce Transatlantic cooperation and a global Alliance of Democracies, providing also for concrete mechanisms of economic solidarity (eg. an economic Article 5).
- Create and cultivate informal cooperation mechanisms such as the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) to effectively strengthen such alliances across the board and allow for increasing dialogue and coordination across levels of government and other stakeholders.
- Create and, where existing, reinforce universal jurisdiction mechanisms to ensure victims may find effective reprieve.
- Adopt and apply coordinated targeted sanctions through the Global Magnitsky mechanisms.
- Champion openness, transparency and information-sharing by ensuring the public’s right to know as a key to reinforce democracy and respect for human rights both at home and abroad.
- Ensure democratic partners as Taiwan are included in the debate and may participate in multilateral fora.
Laura Harth
The full video of the conference is available on the website of Radio Radicale.