Geneva: The concerns over China’s continued violation of human rights, particularly, forced boarding schools in Tibet were raised in the ongoing 53rd UN Human Rights Council session.
During an interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on Education under item 3 of the UN human rights council session on 27 June 2023, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council Michele Taylor commended the UN Special Rapporteur on Education for bringing attention to Chinese government-run boarding schools in Tibet. The forced boarding school run by the Chinese government in Tibet has “forcibly separated approximately one million Tibetan children from their families, including those as young as four years old” which raises serious human rights concerns, said Ambassador Taylor.
Welcoming the Special Rapporteur’s report on the right to education, on behalf of the Society For Threatened Peoples, the UN Advocacy Officer of the Tibet Bureau-Geneva Kalden Tsomo called for the UN Human Rights Council’s attention on “colonial style boarding schools” run by the Chinese government in Tibet.
China has used education as a political tool to suppress and Sinicize Tibetan culture and identity, said Kalden Tsomo in the statement delivered. Highlighting China’s forcible closure of Tibetan private schools teaching Tibetan language and culture; separation of nearly a million Tibetan children aged 6 to 18 from their parents and community and forced residential schools, she reiterated the UN Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights and Special procedure, including the Special Rapporteur on education’s concerns and recommendation to China to abolish residential schools and to allow private schools to operate in Tibetan areas.
Furthermore, she called for the attention of the UN Human Rights Council over the repressive move by China to suppress any form of expression of Tibetanness, through a series of oppressive measures including education. The discriminatory practices and issues affecting the life of Tibetan women under China’s discriminatory policies and practices in Tibet were also raised During an interactive dialogue with the UN Working Group on Discrimination Against Women held on 22 June 2023, Besides, the Tibet Bureau -Geneva and Society For Threatened Peoples jointly organised a side event to brought the spotlight on China’s continued repression in Tibet on the sideline of the ongoing UN Human Rights session.
-Report filed by the Tibet Bureau-Geneva