Dharamshala: On this date, 75 years ago, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The UDHR is a landmark document that enshrines the inalienable rights of all human beings, which everyone is entitled to without any pre-conditions. A precursor to the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the UDHR along with these two international covenants, forms the International Bill of Human Rights. This has resulted in strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights throughout the world.
China’s volitional and ongoing systematic abuse of Tibetans’ basic rights since its illegal occupation displays a total disregard for international human rights law and the mechanisms designed to promote and protect people’s rights, which China is bound to respect and comply with.
Widespread human rights violations by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) government in regions under its illegal occupation of Tibet, and others including, East Turkestan, Southern Mongolia, Hong Kong, Macau were evident during its Third Periodic Review by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in March this year. China was questioned on various allegations of human rights violations in Tibet including but not limited to the persecution of Tibetan human rights defenders, the forced resettlement of Tibetan nomads, forced labor, discrimination in the workplace, the lack of religious freedom and language rights, assimilation of Tibetan children in boarding schools, etc. However, the Chinese delegation either denied all charges or provided blanket self-laudatory responses without providing clarification or any data to back them.
In 2023, Freedom House ranked Tibet as the least free region in the world for the third consecutive year. In Tibet, the PRC government continues to operate colonial boarding schools, separating nearly one million Tibetan children from their families and depriving them of the opportunity to learn their mother tongue, the Tibetan language, and get acquainted with Tibetan culture and traditions. A significant majority of Tibetans, specially writers, intellectuals, environmentalists, community leaders, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and artists are unlawfully arrested, imprisoned, tortured and subjected to enforced disappearance for months before being brought for shammed trial. A group of six UN Special Rapporteurs questioned China on the whereabouts of Lotse and Samdup, as well as the arrest of Rachung Gendun, Sonam Gyatso, Zumkar, and Youdon, all of whom were illegally arrested for their religious activities. Police assaults and beating of Gonpo Kyi on multiple occasions for her protest against the PRC government’s unjust life sentencing of Dorjee Tashi showcase PRC’s suppression of the right to protest for free and fair trial. The recent sentencing of Tibetan singer Palden to three years in prison for posting a Tibetan patriotic song on social media serves as an example of the dire condition under which Tibetans live and how no space is left for their freedom of expression. For the ninth straight year, China is ranked highest among abusers of internet freedom, as evidenced by a comprehensive surveillance system and persecution of Tibetans for asserting national identity, such as sharing religious books, patriotic Tibetan songs, pictures of His Holiness, and writings critical of Party ideology. Chinese police have taken DNA samples from 1.2 million Tibetans, including five-years-old children, without consent, raising grave concerns regarding the existence of a right to privacy as well as putting their families at risk of being arrested by the Chinese police. Custodial deaths of Chukdhar (in August 2022) and Geshe Phende Gyaltsen (in February 2023) highlights the extensive and systematic human rights abuses in Tibet with near-total impunity, including the use of torture and ill-treatment against Tibetans on a routine basis. Tibetans are particularly repressed in their religious rights, with lay Tibetans and children forbidden from participating in religious activities, while monks and nuns are subjected to political indoctrination sessions and barred from religious teachings and discussion in public or on the internet. China refuses to enclose any credible information on the whereabouts of Tibet’s 11th Panchen Lama following 28 years of enforced disappearance despite multiple inquiries from the UN Working groups as well as international community. The self-immolation of at least 157 Tibetans till now highlights the dire and worsening human rights situation in Tibet.
Transnational repression by the PRC government has led to self-censorship among Tibetans diaspora, who live in constant fear and have, as a result, been forced to sever contact with family members in Tibet to protect them from potential PRC reprisals. Over two million Tibetan nomads and farmers have been forced to relocate from their traditional grasslands without proper compensation. The vast vacated land has been illegally claimed and later used for military training camps, mining activities, and large-scale government projects, including hydropower plants on transboundary rivers, that benefit the PRC government at the expense of local Tibetans and the environment.
The DIIR extends its sincere appreciation for solidarity efforts from the various governments, officials, parliamentarians, UN Special Rapporteurs, human rights defenders, Tibet supporters and non-government organizations that have expressed grave concerns about China’s human rights violations in Tibet, East Turkestan, Southern Mongolia, and elsewhere and called for the protection of human rights defenders. China’s fourth cycle of the UN Universal Periodic Review in January 2024 is a significant occasion to raise and challenge China’s atrocious human rights conduct and serious violations of its national and international obligations in countries under its illegal rule. We urge governments, member states, and the international community to hold the PRC government accountable for its acculturation and assimilation policies to eradicate Tibetan identity through the implementation of unlawful regulations and inhuman treatment of Tibetans both in prisons and on a daily basis. China must oblige the demands of the UN experts and remedy its repressive policies in Tibet and guarantee genuine universal human rights for Tibetans.
- Filed by the UN, EU, and the Human Rights Desk, Tibet Advocacy Section, DIIR