An oral statement that was delivered on 27^th September by FIDH at the ongoing session of the UN Human Rights Council.

The Chinese delegation raised a point of order against it (saying the speaker “abused the platform of the Council to attack the leader of the Chinese people in violation of the rules of procedure of the Council”), but the President let the speaker continue.

Forwarded by International Campaign for Tibet Brussels

UN Human Rights Council – 51st session

Item 4: General Debate – Oral statement on thehuman rights situation in China

27 September 2022

Mr. Vice-President,

FIDH and its member organization International Campaign for Tibet condemn Beijing’s relentless repression and forced assimilation of communities in Tibet and Xinjiang through the implementation of laws, policies, and actions that are grossly inconsistent with international human rights law, including treaties to which China is a state party.

We welcome the OHCHR’s recent report on the human rights situation in Xinjiang, which confirms that serious human rights violations have been committed against Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim communities, and that some of these violations may amount to crimes against humanity. We call on the Human Rights Council to convene a formal discussion on the findings and recommendations of the report at the next session.

In Tibet, the Chinese authorities continue to systematically apply policies that violate the fundamental rights of Tibetans, in particular under the leadership of President Xi Jinping. It is deeply disturbing that Chinese authorities have significantly increased policing, including arbitrary collection of DNA from residents (including from children) in many towns and villages throughout the Tibet Autonomous Region. This further strengthens Beijing’s surveillance capabilities over the Tibetan people and represents a serious intrusion on the right to privacy.

Mister President, within the UN system there’s an abundant body of evidence that points to a consistent and broad range of abuses in China, which in many cases amount to the most serious international crimes.

We urge the Council to establish an impartial and independent mechanism to collect and analyze evidence of such abuses with a view to contribute to the promotion of accountability for perpetrators and redress for the victims.

Thank you.

Tibet Lobby Day returns in person, promotes Resolve Tibet Act

By International Campaign for Tibet | September 27, 2022

Tibet supporters met with members of Congress and Congressional staff last week at the first in-person Tibet Lobby Day in years, building crucial support for a new Tibet bill and sharpening Tibetan Americans’ advocacy skills.

Tibet Lobby Day 2022 brought over 100 Tibetan Americans and Tibet supporters to Washington, DC on Sept. 22-23 for more than 80 meetings with Congressional offices.

This year’s participants—who included Thondup Tsering of Amherst, Massachusetts, who is a member of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile—came from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and Washington, DC.

Traveling all over Capitol Hill and opening up about how China’s illegal occupation of Tibet has harmed them and their families, the Lobby Day participants made one main request of their members of Congress: Support the Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Conflict Act, a bipartisan bill introduced in July by Reps. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., and Michael McCaul, R-Texas.

Known as the Resolve Tibet Act, the bill will push the Chinese government to resume negotiations on Tibet’s future with the Dalai Lama’s envoys for the first time since 2010. The legislation will also support the Tibetan people’s right to self-determination.

“Several Congressional offices we met were excited about the bill. We look forward to more members of Congress cosponsoring the legislation as a result of the Tibet Lobby Day participants,” said Franz Matzner, government relations director of the International Campaign for Tibet, which organized the Lobby Day alongside other groups including Students for a Free Tibet and Tibetan associations around the country.

Matzner added, “It also was thrilling to witness so many Tibetan Americans, especially young people, speak up about their personal experiences and call on their elected leaders to take action. The Chinese government has hidden a great deal of its oppression in Tibet from the outside world, so we at ICT are committed to empowering Tibetan Americans to raise their voices and shine the light of truth on Tibet.

“That’s exactly what this Tibet Lobby Day helped do.”

Lobbying on Capitol Hill

This year marked the first time Tibet Lobby Day—an annual event since 2009—took place in person since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

The return of face-to-face lobbying allowed Tibetan Americans and Tibet supporters from around the United States to meet with their legislators on Capitol Hill.

One of the highlights of the event was the meeting with Sen. Patrick Leahy, the retiring Vermont Democrat, who took time out of his busy final months on the Hill to greet Sonam Lhakhang, President of the Tibetan Association of Vermont, Namgyal Choedup, Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration to North America, Tencho Gyatso, ICT’s Interim Vice President, and others.

The meeting turned emotional as Leahy, the longest-serving member of the Senate, spoke movingly and tearfully about his and his wife’s many years of friendship with the Dalai Lama.

Leahy showed the lobbyists a photo he took in the 1980s of a man in Tibet hugging his baby son while holding a picture of the Dalai Lama. Although Chinese police arrest Tibetans for owning photos of the Buddhist leader, the man wanted Leahy to photograph him with it.

To thank Leahy for his incredible support of Tibet, Representative Choedup presented him with a “thangka” (a Tibetan traditional painting) and a “khata” (a Tibetan greeting scarf).

Celebrating 20 years of US Tibet policy

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., another longtime presence in the Senate, also met with constituents from her home state during Tibet Lobby Day.

In addition, Feinstein provided a video message for Lobby Day about the 20th anniversary of the Tibetan Policy Act of 2002, a law she introduced alongside Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., and Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill. Feinstein is the only member of that quartet who is still in Congress.

Feinstein’s video played during the reception for Tibet Lobby Day at ICT’s office on the evening of Sept. 22. At the reception, Choedup addressed the participants and gave a brief overview of the Central Tibetan Administration’s approach to the United States.

The reception also featured a five-and-a-half-minute video on the TPA’s 20th anniversary, showing how the bill codified support for Tibet in US law for the first time and set the stage for two decades of American political and programmatic initiatives on Tibet.

The next step, ICT leaders said, is to pass the Resolve Tibet Act, which can carry Tibet policy forward to a long-awaited peaceful resolution of China’s occupation of Tibet.

But Lobby Day, they added, is not all serious.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Gyatso, ICT’s Interim Vice President, said. “We have people who got married after coming here,” she added to laughter before inviting the participants to a dinner featuring authentic Tibetan cuisine.

Lhakhang, the Tibetan Association of Vermont President, said he was asked by the community members to participate in this year’s Tibet Lobby Day so that he can offer their gratitude to retiring Senator Leahy and also to urge their members of congress to support the Resolve Tibet Act.

“It was a successful event,” he said.

Watch the celebration of the Tibetan Policy Act at the Tibet Lobby Day reception.

See highlights from Tibet Lobby Day 2022.

Taiwan: Despite drawing much criticism and threat from Beijing, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi-led delegation of five Democratic lawmakers visited Taiwan on Tuesday, 2 August becoming the highest ranking US official to visit the country since 1997.

On the eve of her departure from Taiwan on August 3, Speaker Pelosi met with seven human rights activists at the National Museum of Human Rights in Taiwan, including pro-democracy activist Wuer Kaixi, Taiwanese human rights activist Mr. Li Mingzhe, who has been persecuted by China, Mr. Lin Rongji of Causeway Bay Bookstore in Hong Kong, and Mr. Kelsang Gyaltsen, Representative of Office of Tibet in Taiwan where they engaged in an hour-long roundtable discussion on varying subjects involving democracy and human rights.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi called on the gathered human rights defenders to make Taiwanese aware of the Chinese dictatorship and defend Taiwan’s democracy.

Representative Kelsang Gyaltsen addressed Speaker Pelosi on the deteriorating human rights situation in Tibet and the increasingly extreme policy of ethnic, religious and cultural genocide in Tibet by the CCP. He also apprised her of CCP’s so-called boarding schools technique as bait to coerce Tibetan children to study in boarding schools away from their parents, thus achieving the assimilation of Tibetan culture and religion, among other issues. He also called on joint organisers of global democracy meeting to be held in October to invite H.H. the Dalai Lama to the conference, stating it would send a clear and strong message to the CCP of the global solidarity to Tibet.

“Current CCP’s chairperson Xi Jinping’s approach to Tibet, the so-called “The Party’s New Generation Policy on the Governance of Tibet” focuses on the annihilation and assimilation of the Tibetan people, as well as eliminating the Dalai Lama’s influence in Tibet. These measures have stirred up even stronger resistance from the Tibetans,” said the Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Taiwan remarking that Tibet has now become a ‘giant prison’.

He further attested that the decades-long genocide in Tibet should continue to receive much attention and support even though the world now is gripped by the Ukraine crisis. Lamenting the initial lack of support and attention from the international community when Tibet was being occupied, Representative mentioned things could have been different had China received the same pressure as Russia does now from the international community. As much criticism as Russia received for its presence in the UN’s Human Rights Council, Representative added China also deserves to be ridiculed and criticised for its presence in the UN and other international organisations considering its depreciating record of human rights violations. 

“No one can be certain that the tragedy that befallen Ukraine would not happen to Taiwan, a free, democratic, and robust country. Only when China transforms itself into a full-fledged democracy, can we truly eliminate the CCP’s destruction and threat to Taiwan and to the rest of the world?” he added.

In his concluding address, Representative Bawa thanked the continuous support of countries such as India, US, European countries and Taiwan, and requested Speaker Pelosi and the US government to pressure CCP into a dialogue with the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). 

China Lashes Out at Dalai Lama’s Visit to Mongolia

VOA Tibetan

China says it has lodged a strong protest with neighboring Mongolia over a visit this week by the Dalai Lama.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei announced the protest at a briefing in Beijing Tuesday.

“We have always opposed any country providing a platform for the Dalai Lama to engage in activities to split China in any form. China has lodged a strong protest to Mongolia.”

He said China has always opposed any country providing the exiled spiritual leader with a platform to advocate independence from China for his native Tibet.

The Dalai Lama began a series of lectures and prayer sessions in Mongolia Tuesday after arriving from Japan, where he blamed Chinese policies for the self-immolations of 11 Buddhist monks and nuns in ethnic Tibetan areas of China.

The Dalai Lama has long insisted he seeks only a degree of autonomy for Tibet, along with better protections for the region’s traditional culture.

But the Chinese spokesman charged that he uses every opportunity to advocate for Tibetan independence.

“The Dalai Lama always uses the opportunity of furtive visits to publicize Tibetan independence, smear the Chinese government and play up issues related to Tibet.”

He said the spiritual leader also uses his travels to smear the Chinese government.

Tibetan-style Buddhism is widely practiced in Mongolia, whose political survival has long depended on a delicate balancing act between its two giant neighbors, China and Russia.

Senior Mongolian religious leaders have stressed the purely spiritual nature of the Dalai Lama’s visit.