UN Advocacy Officer of the Tibet Bureau-Geneva Kalden Tsomo delivered an oral statement.
Geneva: The situation and challenges faced by Tibetan women in Tibet was raised during an interactive dialogue with the UN Working Group on Discrimination Against Women held on 22 June, at the ongoing 53rd UN Human Rights Council Session.
UN Advocacy Officer of the Tibet Bureau-Geneva Kalden Tsomo delivered an oral statement highlighting the key issues affecting the life of Tibetan women due to China’s discriminatory policies and practices in Tibet. “Tibetan women and nuns have been at the forefront in the Tibetan resistance movement. Following the destruction of Tibetan Buddhist learning centers and large evictions of monks and nuns from Yachen Gar and Larung Gar, to date, the well-being and whereabouts of evicted monks and nuns remain unknown. The Tibetan women rights defenders Yeshi Choedon, Gonpo Kyi, Rinchen Kyi and many others were persecuted for speaking up for fundamental rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” said Kalden Tsomo in the statement.
Echoing the concerns raised by the UN Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women during the treaty body review of China, held last month, she underlined the challenges faced by the Tibetan women including barriers to access to justice, closure of Tibetan schools, forced residential schools, denial of access to education in Tibetan language, the confiscation of Tibetan passports as well as forced labour & forced marriages and the undermining of linguistic and cultural identity of Tibetan women.
She said it is important to echo the CEDAW calls on China for effective implementation of the prohibition of discrimination against all women, including Tibetan women, and to abolish all forms of discrimination against Tibetan women.
The Tibet Bureau and Society For Threatened Peoples jointly organised a side event titled “Tibetans Report on the Current State of Repression: 75 Years After the Universal Declaration of Human Rights”, on 20th June 2023, sidelining the ongoing 53rd UN Human Rights Council session.
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–Report filed by the Tibet Bureau-Geneva
