-by International Campaign for Tibet
BERLIN—At the 54th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) has once again highlighted the worrying pattern of enforced disappearances and arbitrary arrests in Tibet.
In his statement on Sept. 19, 2023 on behalf of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, ICT Germany Director Kai Müller called on the member states of the Human Rights Council to urgently demand information from the Chinese government about the whereabouts and well-being of disappeared Tibetans.
“We welcome the fact that the UN Working Group against Enforced Disappearance, at its 129th session and in its current report, has highlighted 16 cases of missing Tibetans. The member states of the Human Rights Council should urge the Chinese government in the upcoming China Review (UPR) in January to disclose the whereabouts of “disappeared” Tibetans, to put an end to this deeply worrying pattern and to hold accountable those responsible for torture and ill-treatment in the Chinese state apparatus,” Müller said.
A day earlier, Mélanie Blondelle from ICT made another statement on behalf of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, pointing to so-called “labor transfers” and “labor programs” of the Chinese government for Tibetans. As early as July 2022, the Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery had expressed concern about “labor transfer programs” also in the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region, which “in many cases showed signs of forced labor, thus indicating the involuntary nature of the work performed by the affected communities.”
Blondelle also called on member states of the UN Human Rights Council to urge the Chinese government in the upcoming review of China (UPR) at the UN Human Rights Council to make information publicly available about so-called “labor transfer and training programs” in Tibetan areas and to allow Tibetans to refuse to participate in these programs. Click here to read more.