Annual Reports

The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) has published its annual report on the human rights situation in Tibet, revealing it to be the worst in recent years. The Chinese government’s COVID-19 measures have caused great distress for Tibetans, with the report highlighting the expansion of involuntary mass DNA collection, online surveillance, and CCTV cameras as social control mechanisms to suppress dissent and tighten state control. Exiled Tibetan activists and dissidents with relatives in Tibet are particularly vulnerable to the PRC’s campaign of transnational repression. The report calls for concrete action to prevent and punish human rights violations and urges the international community to hold China accountable for its treatment of Tibetans.

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The 2020 Annual Report on the human rights situation in Tibet, released online today in three languages: Tibetan, Chinese and English, presents a disturbing picture of deprivation and abuses, marked by persistent and grave human rights violations, including the absence of independent space for free speech owing to the widespread and systematic crackdown on any sign of peaceful dissent.Events documented…

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The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy is pleased to announce the release of 2019 Annual Report: Human Rights Situation in Tibet earlier today in Dharamsala, India. The report documents China’s ruthless suppression of any political dissent while steadily using policies and legislation to chip away at the pillars of Tibetan political and cultural identity. The PRC demonstrated no…

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2018 has been a pivotal year for human rights in Tibet and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The introduction of new policies and regulations has led to an increased restriction on human rights and lives of the Tibetan people. This has resulted in the arbitrary detention and arrest of Tibetans, who have been exercising their rights to peaceful assembly, freedom of movement, religious and culture freedom and their right to an adequate standard of living, among others.

The introduction of a nationwide campaign in January 2018 to eliminate all forms of  ‘organised crime’ and ‘evil forces’ codified long-standing instances of human rights violations in Tibet. Although a campaign of this nature is not new in Tibet, the scope of the activities it publicly criminalises is unprecedented, as it covers activities related to social welfare and Tibetan cultural practices, and other civil society initiatives to improve the lives of ordinary Tibetans. In reality, the so-called ‘war on organised crime’ is being waged to expand and strengthen the Chinese Communist Party influence and networks at lower-level jurisdictions and primarily in rural areas.  As seen in the past, the increased efforts to “strengthen political power at the grassroots level” have led to an unprecedented tightening of control and political repression in Tibetan areas, turning Tibet into a human rights black hole.

Tibetans are subjected to arbitrary arrest and detention with prolonged period of criminal detention, allowing Chinese officials to escalate their unlawful practices by means of violence and torture to obtain forced confessions. Tibetans face obstacles to have access to a fair trial, especially if the charges held against them are of a political nature. Indeed, very few got to exercise this right in formal proceedings.

Tibetans’ inability to travel within and outside of Tibet has been steadily growing. The numerous checkpoints and roadblocks, along with the barriers to obtaining a passport has made it near impossible for Tibetans to travel, with some experts noting that circumambulating around the Potala Palace in Lhasa is now more difficult than getting into an airport.

The right to freedom of religion and belief is targeted by the Party’s two-pronged policy on religion such as ‘adapting religion to socialism with Chinese characteristics’ and ‘sinicising Tibetan Buddhism’. This has led to the enforced enrollment of young Tibetan monks into Chinese government schools and the prevention of Tibetan language workshops to be held in local monastic institutions.

The presence of a healthy environment and an adequate standard of living continue to decline rapidly as Tibetans have been unable to influence policy decisions to diminish the effects of river pollution, grassland degradation and desertification, land tenure security, among others.

The 2018 annual report highlights the continued human rights violations that occur in Tibet on a daily basis, without intervention from the international community. To read the full extent of the PRC’s impact on the Tibetan people in 2018, click on the link.

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The party-state of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) continued its egregious human rights violations and abuses in Tibet by criminalizing basic human rights and freedoms, and engaging in arbitrary detention, torture, enforced disappearance, collective punishment and environmental destruction to name a few, according to the 2016 Annual Report on human rights situation in Tibet released by the Tibetan Centre…

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Annual Report English CoverOn 7 February 2015 the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) released its 2014 Annual Report on human rights situation in Tibet. The report is available in English, Tibetan, and, for the first time, Chinese.

The Annual Report demonstrates that despite the promised reforms, the human rights situation in Tibet is continuing to deteriorate. In particular, the Annual Report highlights death in detention, collective punishment, and restrictions on the right to freedom of assembly and association. In all three areas the treatment of Tibetans has deteriorated substantially.

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Cover of 2013 Annual Report
Cover of 2013 Annual Report

The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) is pleased to announce the release of the 2013 Annual Report on the human rights situation in Tibet and ‘Gulags of Tibet’, a special report on Re-education Through Labour (Ch: laojiao) system in Tibet.

The 2013 Annual Report, available in Tibetan and English, focuses on Civil and Political Rights, Religious Repression, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Religious Repression, the China’s development strategy, and self-immolations. The theme of the 2013 Annual Report is the continued implementation of nomad resettlement and relocation policy. Tibetan nomads have been forced from their ancestral lands and resettled/relocated in urban areas, mostly against their wishes and without adequate compensation. The newly built urban areas where they are forced to resettle cannot sustain their centuries-old way of life, and compared to Chinese migrant workers, nomads receive less state support in terms of finding employment and other sources of livelihood. It was widely estimated that 90% of all Tibetan nomads in Qinghai Province would be resettled at the end of 2013. Despite claims to the contrary, the primary reason for the forced relocation of the nomads is to exploit rich mineral resources from the nomadic lands. State-owned mining companies have already begun the massive extraction of precious minerals such as lithium, copper, chrome, gold and oil.

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Persistent, long-term oppression can inflame the oppressed consciousness to act on radical measures to defend and assert their individual and collective rights. In Tibet this year, 82 Tibetans set their bodies on fire calling for the “return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet,” “freedom for Tibet” and “human rights in Tibet.” This has taken the total number of…

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