Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Last week’s vote at the UN General Assembly to make Palestine a “non-member observer state” was a rare bit of good news from a region that often provides more than its share of misery. Besides breathing new life into the possibility of a two-state solution, the decision could also create a precedent for another seemingly intractable conflict of equal duration, that of Taiwan’s status vis-a-vis China.

Palestine’s journey from “non-member observer entity” to “non-member observer state” was not easy, nor was it uncontroversial. Furthermore, this new status, which is now equal to that of the Vatican, does not resolve a number of substantive issues, such as Israeli settlements or Hamas’ refusal to recognize Israel’s right to exist.

More than 40 percent of the respondents in an annual survey rated Taiwan’s overall performance in human rights protection this year as either “bad” or “very bad,” the Taipei-based Chinese Association for Human Rights said yesterday.

In terms of overall human rights protection, 27.7 percent of residents said Taiwan’s performance was bad, while 15.7 percent considered it to be very bad, the association said, citing the poll.

Only 4 percent of the respondents rated Taiwan’s overall human rights situation as “very good,” while 34.3 percent said it was “good” and 18.3 percent did not comment, according to the association.