Takna Jigme Sangpo to Testify at UN Commission on Human Rights

Dharamsala, 29 March 2003: Takna Jigme Sangpo, one of the most determined and well known human rights defenders in Tibet, will testify at the 59th UN
Commission on Human Rights at the invitation of Dutch-based International
Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR), an NGO with Consultative status with
the United Nations. In the statement, Takna Jigme Sangpo is expected to
inform the Commission about the 37 years of direct and indirect imprisonment
that he endured between 1965 and March 2002. Takna Jigme Sangpo aka
Jigsang-la will arrive in Geneva on 30 March after a week’s speaking tour to
France which was hosted by the Office of Tibet, Paris.

Takna Jigme Sangpo will enter the United Nations Office in Geneva on Monday,
exactly a year after his release from Drapchi Prison in 2002. On 31 March
when Commission begins its debate under the item dealing with human rights
situations in countries, Takna Jigme Sangpo will speak at a parallel NGO
Event, “China’s Human Rights Policy: 10 Years After Vienna,” organised by
Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights and International
Fellowship of Reconciliation. Human Rights experts from China, Eastern
Turkestan and Hong Kong will also speak at this meeting.
As the Commission concludes its second week of session, on 27 March it
rejected a motion to hold a special sitting on the human rights and
humanitarian situation in Iraq during its current session. The proposal was
defeated by a vote of 18 in favour to 25 against, with 7 abstentions plus 5
absent votes. The motion, if accepted, would have been entitled “Special
sitting of the fifty-ninth session of the Commission on Human Rights on
human rights and humanitarian situation in Iraq as consequences of the war”.
China which voted for holding the special sitting, explained its vote saying
that members of the Commission were lucky to be fighting only a war of
words. The Commission was fully aware of the situation in Iraq thanks to
reports by the BBC and CNN. Thanks to these reports they came to know that
last night 100 innocent civilians were killed by a precision guided missile.
China recalled that according to legal advice provided by Secretariat, the
Commission had the right to consider the issue. For these reasons, China
supported this proposal to convene a special sitting and announced that if
the proposal was adopted it would confine its observations to its terms of
reference.

When the Commission discussed the item dealing with right to development
this week, another NGO written statement on Tibet was released amongst the
documents. The statement
by New York-based International League for Human Rights said that “only when Tibet’s people enjoy genuine
self-determination, which includes the right to freely determine the
disposition of their natural and mineral resources within a framework of
environmental conservation and international cooperation, can they truly
enjoy the right to development.”

The Tibetan delegation currently attending the Commission are Mr. Chhime R.
Chhoekyapa and Mr. Ngawang C. Drakmargyapon of Tibet Bureau for UN Affairs,
Geneva. Ms. Norzin Dolma of the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and
Democracy and Ms. Tsering Jampa of International Campaign for Tibet-Europe
will join the Tibetan Delegation next week.

Tibet Bureau, Geneva