UN expert’s intervention in marginalisation of Tibetan language[Thursday, 26 May 2011, 3:35 a.m.]
DHARAMSHALA:
Four human rights experts from the UN Human Rights Council on 22
October 2010 issued a joint urgent appeal to China regarding
allegations relating to restrictions imposed on the use of the Tibetan
language in schools in northeastern Tibet.The experts of the
Council were the Special Rapporteur on the right to education,
contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia,
related intolerance and independent expert on minority issues and the
independent expert in the field of cultural rights.The experts
told the Chinese government: “Such alleged restrictions on the use of
the Tibetan language in schools would have a negative impact on those
of Tibetan origin and the preservation and promotion of the Tibetan
language generally.”They also said concerns related to the
impact of the education reforms on the education outcomes as well as to
access to their cultural heritage of children whose mother tongue
language was Tibetan. Those children had benefited from bilingual
education that had enabled them to become proficient in both languages,
ensuring access to their own cultural heritage.The Chinese
authority denied such allegations claiming that there had not been any
detentions of students connected to the protests and stated that they
listened to their grievances.Last year, the Tibetan students in
Rebkong and Chabcha protested against the Chinese government policy
restricting the use of Tibetan language. In a petition written
by Tibetan teachers to the authorities, the Tibetan teachers write that
they support a genuine bilingual language policy, in which the teaching
of the Chinese language is strengthened, but subjects are taught
through the Tibetan language medium. But the Chinese
authorities are setting in place what they also characterise as a
“bilingual” policy but which appears to mean in practice an education
imperative which is designed to transition minority students from
education in their mother tongue to education in Chinese. New measures
to “forcefully develop ‘bilingual’ pre-school education in the farming
and pastoral areas, strengthen teaching of the Chinese language in the
basic education phase, [and] basically resolve nationality students’
fundamental ability issues in speaking and understanding Chinese” were
outlined as part of a ten-year plan for 2010-2020 in Qinghai in June.
In a response dated 18 November, 2010 to the UN human rights
experts, Chinese government asserts that they respect the views and
opinions from the teachers and students. They assured that the matter
has been resolved and the situation in the schools has returned to
normal. Mr Githu Muigai, Special Rapporteur, stated that it
wishes to emphasise paragraph 82 of the outcome document of the Durban
Review Conference, which affirms that “The existence and the national
or ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic identity of minorities
shall be protected, and the persons belonging to these minorities
should be treated equally and enjoy human rights and fundamental
freedoms without discrimination of any kind.” The 17th session
of the UN Human Rights Council will be held from 30 May to 17 June,
2011 at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.
