Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

During the Ebola epidemic last year, Taiwan had no way of contributing to the aid effort under way in Africa in any official capacity. After the earthquakes in Nepal last month, the Nepalese government initially refused assistance from the government.

In March, the WHO updated the International Health Regulations list of authorized ports and harbors, with Taiwanese ports still listed as in China. This year also coincided with the end of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, and the world’s governments are now negotiating draft sustainable development goals for the post-2015 development agenda, a discussion from which Taiwan has been excluded.

“The establishment of a democratic system is only the first step toward human rights guarantees. A popularly elected government that is not monitored and does not follow the law, but continues to violate the law and abuse its power, will create discrimination and opposition. If we want to build a normal democratic society, it will be necessary to actively improve Taiwan’s political, economic and social human rights. If we do not, Taiwanese democracy will become but an empty shell. The government’s legal violations and abuse of power and social injustice will not disappear simply as a result of democracy’s good name,” President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in 2008 in A Declaration of Human Rights for Taiwan in the New Century.