Monthly Archives: November 2013

poster_final_corrected‘Banned Expression: Support Free Speech in Tibet’ is an awareness campaign focussing on the Right to Freedom of Opinion, Expression and Information in Tibet.
 

Over a hundred Tibetan writers, poets, artists, intellectuals and cultural figures have been arrested, tortured and imprisoned since the 2008 uprising in Tibet. By daring to refute China’s official narrative of events surrounding the 2008 Uprising, these courageous Tibetans represent a significant new challenge to the Chinese authorities.

China is implementing mass surveillance and propaganda campaigns under the rubric of Chinese president Xi Jinping’s “mass line” policy in Tibet. New regulations on the internet and phone use have been implemented since 2011 to block information and censor communication. Book and journals are banned; websites shut down and online contents deleted and censored in real time by armies of Chinese government censors. China has vowed again to block all images, information and teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Tibet by setting “nets in the sky” and “traps on the ground” .

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Former political prisoner Lhamo Kyab and TCHRD director Tsering Tsomo during the launch of the documentary at TCHRD office
Former political prisoner Lhamo Kyab and TCHRD director Tsering Tsomo during the launch of the documentary at TCHRD office

The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) is pleased to announce the release of a new documentary movie titled ‘A Sacrifice’, shot and directed by Theo Hessing, a filmmaker based in London, UK.

The 26-minute long film depicts the life of Lhamo Kyab, a former political prisoner and now a political activist in exile. After his brief stay in exile,  Lhamo returned to Tibet in 2006 with a mission to free his homeland from the Chinese occupation. He was subsequently arrested, imprisoned and tortured for three years in the dreaded Chushur Prison located in the outskirts of Lhasa city.

Apart from documenting the ordeals of a Tibetan political prisoner, the film captures the harrowing tale of self-immolation protests in Tibet and its impact on the Tibetan struggle for freedom.

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Thupten Gyaltsen
Thupten Gyaltsen

Arbitrary arrests and detention have increased amid unusual intensification of state surveillance measures in Nagchu (Ch: Naqu) Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).

A Tibetan man has been detained and disappeared in Sog (Ch: Suo) County, which neighbours the restive Diru (Ch: Biru) County in Nagchu Prefecture.

Information received by TCHRD confirms that Thupten Gyaltsen aka Thupgyal, 27, was detained by local Public Security Bureau officers on the night of 11 November 2013 from his home at Village No. 5 in Gyalchen (Ch: Jiaqin) Township in Sog County.

For the past few months, unrest has increased in many areas in Nagchu Prefecture due to the repressive nature of Chinese policies particularly the “mass line” campaign which has made Tibetans vulnerable to mass surveillance and propaganda campaigns. In particular, conditions in Diru County has deteriorated a great deal leading to the alarming rise in the number of arbitrary arrests and disappearances

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རྒྱ་གཞུང་གི་གསང་བའི་འཇུ་བཟུང་འོག་གར་སོང་ཆ་མེད་དུ་གྱུར་པའི་བོད་མི་ཐུབ་རྒྱལ་ལགས།

རྒྱ་གཞུང་གིས་གསང་བའི་ཐོག་བོད་མི་མང་པོ་འཇུ་བཟུང་བཙན་ཁྲིད་གར་སོང་ཆ་མེད་དུ་འགྱུར་བཞིན་ཡོད་པ་ལྟར། ཟླ་འདིའི་ཕྱི་ཚེས་ ༡༡ ཉིན་གྱི་མཚན་མོར། རང་ལོ་ ༢༧ ཡིན་པའི་བོད་མི་ཐུབ་བསྟན་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ཟེར་བ་ཞིག་རྒྱ་གཞུང་ཉེན་རྟོག་པས་བཙན་འཁྲིད་ཀྱིས་གར་སོང་ཆ་མེད་དུ་གྱུར་འདུག

འདི་ག་ལྟེ་གནས་ཁང་ལ་གནས་ཚུལ་འབྱོར་དོན། རྒྱ་གཞུང་གིས་བོད་ས་བཅད་བགོས་ཀྱི་ད་ལྟའི་ས་ཁོངས་ལྟར་བྱས་ན། བོད་རང་སྐྱོང་ལྗོངས་ནག་ཆུ་ས་ཁུལ་སོག་རྫོང་རྒྱལ་ཆེན་ཤང་གྲོང་ཚོ་ལྔ་པ་ནས་ཡིན་ཞིང་། ད་ལྟ་རང་ལོ་ ༢༧ ཡིན་པའི་བོད་མི་ཐུབ་བསྟན་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ནམ་ཐུབ་རྒྱལ་ཟེར་བའི་བོད་མི་ཞིག ཕྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༡༣ ཟླ་ ༡༡ ཚེས་ ༡༡ ཉིན་སྟེ་གཟའ་ཉི་མའི་མཚོན་མོར་རྒྱ་གཞུང་ཉེན་རྟོག་པས་གསང་བའི་ཐོག་འཇུ་བཟུང་གིས་གར་སོང་ཆ་མེད་དུ་གྱུར་ཡོད་འདུག

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UN_LogoOn 12 November 2013, China was elected as a member of the UN Human Rights Council. The Human Rights Council (HRC) was created in 2006 and replaced the former UN Commission on Human Rights; it is the UN’s top human rights body and is made up of 47 Member States, elected by the UN General Assembly. The HRC has the mandate to strengthen the promotion and the protection of human rights worldwide as well as to address situations of human rights violations. One of its most important mechanisms is the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which assesses the compliance to human rights norms and standards by all UN Member States.

For the past months, there has been a great concern in the international community regarding China’s candidature to become part of the HRC. The UN Resolution 60/251 which created the HRC establishes in its article 8 that “when electing members of the Council, Member States shall take into account the contribution of candidates to the promotion and the protection of human rights and their voluntary pledges and commitments made thereto”. China has succeeded to win a seat at the Council, despite its poor human rights record and the calls from many civil society organisations to exclude China from becoming a member.

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Kundak
Kundak

Chinese authorities have detained 17 known Tibetans in separate incidents following the outbreak of popular protests against China’s ‘mass-line’ campaigns in Diru (Ch: Biru) County in Nagchu (Ch: Naqu) Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).

According to information received by TCHRD, on the night of 3 November 2013, local authorities arbitrarily detained 15 Tibetans at Tengkhar Village in Shamchu Township in Diru County. Among them, three were women, who were identified as Sarkyi, 49, Tsophen, 47, and Yangkyi, 25. Sarkyi is the mother of two sons: Lamsang 24, and Tsewang Lhakyap, 19, both of whom were also detained. Others detained in Tengkhar village are Tsering, 22, Tsering Phuntsok, 21, Tador (perhaps a shortened form of Tashi Dorjee), 21, Kundak, 17, Gabug, 41, Tsering Tenpa, 22, Thupchen, 27, Soeta, 25, Tsering Jangchup, 21, and Jigme Phuntsok, 23.

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