Basis for inclusion of states with limited recognition

[HartBlanc]

Hi, I'm trying to decipher under what circumstances a country is included in this repo?

Based on an old 2014 issue (#68) and the presence of ISO codes I understood that it was based on UN membership but Kosovo (non-member, non-observer) appears to be included with a user assigned ISO code, but missing numeric code.

However, other common examples are not included (e.g. Northern Cyprus, more exhaustive list here)

Potential solutions I can see include:

1. Work to include all states with limited recognition with an enforced (and clearly documented) criteria for inclusion / reference source. These could then be assigned numeric codes in the user-assigned space (including numerics and alphabetic codes, making use of the status attribute, for reliable crosswalks). One candidate criteria for inclusion could be recognition by at least one member?

2. Remove existing non-member states, and clearly document this criteria in the readme, to ensure clarity and reliability. This would likely have an impact on those reliant on the Kosovo data.

[sylvainemery]

Hi,

Somewhat related: @mledoze, do you consider non-member observers as part of the UN? Because I see that Holy See (Vatican City) is marked as a UN member, but not the Palestine, and they have both the same status.
Thanks!