The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) submitted an alternative report to UN Committee Against Torture ahead of its review of the Fifth Periodic Report of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on implementation of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Convention Against Torture). The Convention Against Torture prohibits torture and…
Is there anything new that can be said about the disappearing nomads of Tibet? For years they have been removed from the plateau pastures that purify the great rivers of Asia, to be rehoused in concrete barracks, without their animals or livelihood. This is usually reported as coercion by a state determined to end nomadism. That has become a standard narrative. The alternative narrative, generated by China’s official media, is that the nomads are all voluntary ‘ecological migrants’ giving up their lands for the greater good of the planet, to allow degrading lands to become a wilderness of pristine grassland, to better protect those rivers watering almost all of Asia.
‘Wasted Lives: China’s Campaign to End Tibetan Nomadic Lifeways’ cuts through these stereotypes and extremes, with a wealth of new evidence. This co-publication by Tibetan Centre for Human Rights & Democracy (TCHRD) and League for Pastoral Peoples (LPP) takes the reader onto the pasture, to hear Tibetan voices. That is what has been strikingly missing till date.
TCHRD’s special report, ‘Gulags of Tibet’ examines the history and evolution of RTL, analyzes the current RTL laws, in addition to examining how RTL violates the international prohibitions of arbitrary detention, forced labor, and torture. The report features interviews with Tibetan RTL survivors who tell their personal stories of being locked up in forced labour camps. In late December 2013,…
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) has released a new report titled “Unjust Sentence: A Special Report on Trulku Tenzin Delek” to coincide with the 45th anniversary of Tibetan Uprising Day on 10 March 2004. TCHRD has already released a similar report in Tibetan language on 2 December 2003.
This 66-page report gives an overview of background of Trulku Tenzin Delek, events leading to his arrest and thereafter, unfair legal proceedings and representations, execution and reaffirmation of death penalty, and provisions and violations with regard to trial and death penalty within Chinese constitution as well as international laws. The report is based primarily on information provided by students, followers and residents of Turlku’s hometown, highlighted in international and Tibetan media, and mentioned in reports of various governments and thematic bodies of the United Nations.
In its recently released report entitled “Closing the Doors: Religious Repression in Tibet”, the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) reported the expulsion of over 3,993 monks and nuns from their monasteries and nunneries under China’s “Strike Hard” Campaign. The report documents widespread repression of freedom of religion in Tibet ever since the launching of the “Strike Hard” campaign in Tibet in April 1996.
The principal part of the report is based on testimonials gathered in interviews with Tibetan refugees who have arrived in exile since 1997. The core of China’s “Strike Hard” and “re-education” campaigns is to force the monks and nuns to oppose notions of Tibetan nationalism and to denounce the Dalai Lama. Those who refuse risk severe repercussions. As of February 1998, 3,993 monks and nuns were expelled from their monasteries or nunneries, 294 were arrested and 14 deaths have been reported. Six monasteries and nunneries were completely closed down.