The President of Paraguay, Mr. Santiago Pena, in statements through a French press agency, said a few days ago that Paraguay recognizes Taiwan’s right to self-determination as a nation and the relationship between the Paraguayan nation and Taiwan has lasted for 67 years and there are no plans to change it.
This forceful affirmation of the Guarani chief executive clearly indicates the firmness of relations between the two states. The right of self-determination is the right of people to decide its own forms of government, pursue its economic, social and cultural development, as well as to structure itself freely, without external interference and in accordance with the principle of equity.
Self-determination is enshrined in the International Covenants on Human Rights, as well as in numerous resolutions of the UN General Assembly, which refer to this principle and develop it. It is a fundamental principle of public international law and a right of peoples, which is inalienable and generates obligations erga omnes for states, that is mandatory for everyone. In fact, according to many authors, self-determination has become a norm of jus cogens.
The right to self-determination is classified as a third-generation human right. The International Court of Justice, in its advisory opinion on the problem of Western Sahara, had stated that it was a collective right owned by the peoples. The theory of representative government holds a definition of people which gives the right of self-determination universal scope. It affirms that the population of a state must decide its government in the free exercise of popular sovereignty.
Paraguay has also signed the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States of 1993, which clearly sets out the four qualification that every people must have in order to consider as an international legal person:
- Permanent population
- A defined territory
- Government
- Capacity to enter into relations with the other states
Taiwan undoubtedly possesses all these requirements at present.
Today Paraguay has become one of Taiwan's most staunch advocates in international forums, thus demonstrating that this diplomatic relationship has become a stone clause of the foreign policies of both nations.