The recurrent theme, which appears in the official Chinese discourse on Tibet, is that of development and growth. Very often the Chinese government has attempted to negate criticism of its human rights history in Tibet by asserting that the Tibetan people have benefited as a result of the development policies implemented by the Chinese authorities. As an illustration of their…
Torture against Tibetan political prisoners has been used as a method of repression since the Chinese occupied Tibet in the 1950s. Despite China’s claim that it adheres to international law which effectively bars the use of torture, the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) has gathered numerous testimonies from former political prisoners which demonstrate that torture is still…
There are many ways in which the human rights of Tibetans are violated. Initially, they are not given the opportunity to invoke their rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association. When they are caught trying to exercise these rights they are detained and other rights are violated, such as their right not to be tortured and to be treated…
A report released by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) today describes wide-spread and systematic violations by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) of Tibetan children’s rights to education. “The Next Generation: The State of Education in Tibet Today”, a 100 page report based on interviews conducted in Spring 1997 with 50 Tibetan children who have fled from Tibet in the previous two or three years, reveals the imposition of prohibitively high school fees, the phasing out of Tibetan language and culture, discrimination, indoctrination lessons and excessively cruel punishments.
The children interviewed by TCHRD ranged in age from 9 to 21 years and represented all three provinces of Tibet. Ninety-six percent of them had fled Tibet for reasons of education, generally under the most hazardous conditions and at great financial and personal cost to their family.