human rights – Page 3

05/08/2013 News

Apple: Respect human rights or withdraw from China

Recent reports that Apple’s suppliers have discriminated against Tibetans and other ethnic minorities in the People’s Republic of China demonstrate that the systematic and brutal discrimination by the Chinese government also exists in the private sector. Chinese policies in Tibet subject Tibetans to religious persecution, forced displacement, arbitrary detention, torture, and murder. Apple attempted to invest in China while still protecting and promoting human rights.

Apple is not the first corporation to invest in a discriminatory country while still trying to protect and promote human rights. In 1977, Reverend Leon Sullivan, a General Motors board member, created the Sullivan Principles. The Sullivan Principles originally consisted of six voluntary principles for multinational corporations in South Africa to follow. The principles called on corporations to adopt equal employment practices, desegregate the workplace, promote trade unions, and provide training and social services for black workers. In 1984, Sullivan also called upon corporations to use their influence to encourage South African corporations to adopt similar principles, to

17/07/2013 News / Thematic Reports

Universal Periodic Review: Hold China accountable for its failed Tibet promises

The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) today released a new report, Universal Periodic Review and China’s Human Rights Record in Tibet. The report is available to the public and will be submitted to the United Nations Special Rapporteurs for Civil and Political rights. Universal Periodic Review and China’s Human Rights Record in Tibet is part of TCHRD’s lobbying effort leading up to China’s Universal Periodic Review at the United Nations Human Rights Council on 22 October 2013. TCHRD is calling for China to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), one of the most important human rights treaties.

The release of Universal Periodic Review and China’s Human Rights Record in Tibet coincides with China’s submission of its national report on its human rights situation on 22 July. In its report China will undoubtedly highlight economic development and other economic, social, cultural rights while ignoring civil and political rights as it did in its White Paper on Human Rights. In the past China has treated human rights as divisible and focused on economic, social, and cultural rights to the exclusion of civil and political rights.

26/06/2013 News / TCHRD Statements

TCHRD remembers torture victims, calls on China to eradicate torture

Jigme Gyatso before his incarceration and torture in Chinese prison — Jigme Gyatso before his incarceration and torture in prison

On 3 April 2013, after 17 years Jigme Gyatso was released from prison. He entered prison a strong and healthy 35 year-old and left with weak eyesight, heart complications and kidney damage that kept him from walking upright. Eight years before his release Jigme Gyatso met the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, who strongly recommended Jigme Gyatso be released because his conviction for “endangering state security” by creating an illegal organization was based on information extracted by torture. During his 17 years imprisonment, he was electrocuted with electric batons and brutally beaten. Today, three months after Jigme Gyatso’s long-awaited release from prison, is the International Day in Support of Torture Victims as Jigme Gyatso struggles with his broken body to live again.

International Day in Support of Torture Victims commemorates the entry into force of the Convention Against Torture, Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment (or Convention Against Torture) on 26 June 1987 with the goal of eradicating torture.

No act, except for slavery, has been prohibited as unanimously and repeatedly as torture. The international community recognizes that the prohibition of torture, like genocide and slavery, is a jus cogens norm, a preemptory norm of international law from which no derogation is permitted. The universal rejection of torture forces torturers to deny its existence and hide their victims from the world by placing them in “black sites” and secret detention facilities or denying their existence.

13/06/2013 News

Two Tibetan singers secretly sentenced but whereabouts unknown

Tibetan singer Chakdor sentenced to two years in prison. His whereabouts remain unknown. — Tibetan singer Chakdor sentenced to four years in prison. His whereabouts remain unknown.

Two Tibetan singers who were detained last year for releasing a music album titled “Agony of Unhealed Wounds” had been secretly sentenced to four years in prison in Ngaba (Ch: Aba) County in Ngaba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province.

According to reliable information received by TCHRD, singers Pema Trinley, 22, and Chakdor, 32, both hailing from Meuruma nomadic village, had recorded and distributed a music DVD containing songs about current situation in Tibet including self-immolation protests, as well as songs in praise of the Dalai Lama, Panchen Lama, Kirti Rinpoche (exiled head of the Kirti monastery) and Lobsang Sangay (exiled Tibetan political leader). In July 2012, days after the release of the music album, both singers were arrested in the neighbouring Machu (Ch: Maqu) County in Kanlho (Ch: Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province. For over six months, they were detained in Ngaba County, sources told TCHRD, before their secret sentencing in February this year.

21/05/2013 News / TCHRD Statements

China rejects universality of human rights in latest white paper

Tibetan students protest in Rebkong County in 2012

Last week, the Information Office of the State Council, or China’s Cabinet, issued a white paper on “Progress in China’s Human Rights in 2012”[i] as a part of its propaganda activity for the upcoming Universal Periodic Review later this year. Unsurprisingly, the white paper praised Chinese progress in human rights—pointing almost exclusively to the benefits of China’s continued economic development. However, behind the self-congratulatory praise and statistics lie China’s underlying philosophy of human rights, which fundamentally misunderstands the international human rights system. China’s white paper is oblivious to the indivisible and universal nature of human rights, and that guaranteeing human rights requires action and not just mere hollow proclamations.

According to the white paper, human rights are divisible and unrelated by treating economic development and the corresponding rights as supreme. The first section of the white paper concerns “Human Rights in Economic Construction” and states that, “it would be impossible to protect people’s rights and interests without first developing the economy to feed and clothe the people.” Rhetoric from China concerning the importance of economic development before even addressing civil and political rights is not new. During the Cold War both capitalist and communist states frequently advocated for either civil and political right or economic, social and cultural rights and ignored the other. This division was a political tool and never accurately described the international human rights system or the philosophy of human rights.

21/05/2013 News

Tibetan writer sentenced to 5 yrs in prison for writing book on self-immolation

Gartse Jigme, monk and writer, sentenced to five years in prison

By branding Dalai Lama as their enemy and neglecting the demands of self-immolators, they have shown that they consider more than 99% of the Tibetan population as their enemies.

~ Gartse Jigme, imprisoned monk and writer

On 14 May 2013, two days before the launch of Chinese state television broadcaster CCTV’s fifth propaganda film on self-immolations, a Tibetan writer was quietly sentenced to five years in prison for writing a book on the issue of Tibet issue including self-immolation protests.

According to exile Tibetan sources, Gartse Jigme, 36, a writer and monk, was sentenced to prison on 14 May 2013 for authoring a book with political contents by Tsekhog (Ch: Zeku) County People’s Court in Malho (Ch: Huangnan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province.

07/05/2013 News

“They treat us like animals”

Tashi Rabten (pen name: Theurang) is a Tibetan writer, poet and editor who is serving a four-year sentence in Mianyang Prison, Sichuan Province. He graduated from North-West University for Nationalities and edited the now-banned Tibetan language journal “Shar Dungri” and also published “Written in Blood”, a compilation of his poems, notes and writings on the situation in Tibet following the 2008 protests.

In this essay, translated by TCHRD, the writer condemns the cultural insensitivity of Chinese tourists and the commercialization of Tibetan culture as the number of Chinese tourists continues to rise, exerting immense pressure on the fragile ecology and landscape of the Tibetan Plateau.

They treat us like animals

By Theurang

During the summer, my homeland is filled with swarms of Chinese tourists. The rush of tourists means that elderly Tibetans are having

24/04/2013 News / TCHRD Statements

Tibet’s Stolen Spiritual Leader Turns 24: China must end enforced disappearance of Tibet’s Panchen Lama

Tibet's XIth Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima — Tibet’s XIth Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima

Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, Tibet’s XI^th Panchen Lama, one of the most important Tibetan spiritual leaders, turns 24 today under house arrest. Gedhun Choekyi Nyima was born on 25 April 1989 in Lhari County in Nagchu, Tibet. It is his 18th year in Chinese custody at an undisclosed location after he and his parents disappeared in 1995. He was only six years old when he was disappeared by the Chinese authorities.

For about 18 years, the Chinese authorities have wilfully misled the international community on the actual whereabouts and wellbeing of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and his family members, almost always sticking to the standard, unverifiable response that the “perfectly ordinary boy” is in “protective custody”, growing up in “excellent state of health” and that his parents “did not want to be disturbed”.

17/04/2013 News

Tibetan mother dies of self-immolation, denied proper cremation by Chinese authorities

A Tibetan mother of one has died after setting herself on fire in protest against Chinese rule in Dzamthang (Ch: Rangtang) County in Ngaba (Ch: Aba) Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province.

According to information received by TCHRD, Chuktso, 20, died after her self-immolation protest on 16 April near Jonang Monastery in Dzamthang County in the Tibetan province of Amdo. Sources said the burning protest took place at around 3 pm (local time).

25/08/2011 News

Updated: Monk Jigme Gyatso arrested fo third time

Latest information from reliable source reveals more details of monk Jigme Gyatso’s arrest. On 19 August, Jigme was invited to Tsoe city for a festival where other popular Tibetans, like singer Sherten, were also invited. When he did not turn up for the event, his two students went in search of their teacher. On reaching the hotel, around 7 o’clock in the evening (local time), there were many police officials who did not allow the two monks to enter the room in which monk Jigme was staying. The police told them that Jigme is not inside. However, the two heard their teacher’s voice from the room, as he told them both to leave before any more problems are created. Jigme’s student also saw him lying on his bed through the windows of his room.

20/02/2009 News

Lithang under siege days after the protest

According to the latest information received by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), Chinese authorities in Lithang County have significantly beefed up security measures by bringing more forces amidst severe restriction imposed on the movement of the people in Lithang following days of protests.

According to sources, “hundreds of People’s Armed Police (PAP) -a paramilitary force- in full combat gears has arrived in Lithang County in the past couple of days following protest by Tibetans in the area. Severe restrictions are being put on the movement of the people in Lithang. People from villages and monasteries were told not to move out of their houses and warn of serious consequences if they come out in the street. All the shops, and restaurants remain closed with streets bearing complete deserted look except for the hundreds of security forces in full combat gears. The situation is very tense in Lithang at the moment.”