TCHRD Statements

The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) will join the UN’s annual campaign of 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence. This global campaign to end all forms of violence against girls and women begins on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, 25 November and ends on Human Rights Day, 10 December. Gender-based violence…

Continue Reading

The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) expresses deep concerns over the condition and whereabouts of a former political prisoner and his wife who had been secretly sentenced to 18 years and two years respectively in Sog (Ch: Suo) County, Nagchu (Ch: Naqu) Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, the Tibetan province of Kham. Information received by TCHRD indicates that…

Continue Reading

2019 marks the 19th anniversary of International Mother Language Day observed annually on 21 February all over the world to highlight the importance of linguistic and cultural diversity for sustainable societies. First proclaimed by the UNESCO in 1999, the date represents the killing of students protesting for their mother tongue to be recognised as one of the national languages in…

Continue Reading

“We will not enjoy security without development, we will not enjoy development without security, and we will not enjoy either without respect for human rights.” 

                                 ~ Kofi Annan, Former Secretary-General of the United Nations

Today is the 70th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), a landmark document in the history of human rights that guarantees for all human beings the civil, economic, political and cultural rights that are universal, inalienable, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated.

Continue Reading

We, the undersigned, express deep concern over the removal of valuable stakeholder information by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) for consideration by UN members states ahead of the 3rd Cycle Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the People’s Republic of China.

The UPR process, undertaken through the UN Human Rights Council, explicitly welcomes constructive contributions from civil society to address human rights challenges and promote universal human rights norms. All of the undersigned groups submitted reports through the OHCHR’s online platform before the deadline of March 29, 2018 as individual organizations or as joint submissions to be considered by states in the preparation of their recommendations, and by the OHCHR in its official summary of information from civil society.

Continue Reading

The UN body working towards the elimination of racial discrimination worldwide has asked for additional information from the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), according to a document dated 13 June 2018.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (‘Committee’) that monitors implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (‘Convention’) conveyed a set of questions (‘List of Themes’) to the PRC after reviewing the PRC’s national report to the 96th session of the body. The PRC delegation will appear before the Committee on 10 and 13 August 2018 with the meeting being webcast live by the UN. The Committee is composed of 18 Experts as members including Ms. Li Yanduan, the current Ambassador of China to the Independent State of Samoa.

Continue Reading

The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) condemns in the strongest terms the sentencing of Tibetan language advocate Tashi Wangchuk to five years imprisonment on the trumped-up charge of inciting separatism.

Tashi Wangchuk was arbitrarily detained on 27 January 2016 after a New York Times documentary reported on his efforts to file a lawsuit against local Chinese authorities for their failure to protect and promote Tibetan culture and language. He had been in arbitrary detention for almost two years when his trial, held in January this year, ended without a verdict.

Continue Reading

On the 23rdanniversary of the enforced disappearance of Tibetan spiritual leader Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) joins a chorus of voices from the international community demanding China to allow independent bodies to verify, without surveillance and government minders, the fate of the 11thPanchen Lama. Gedhun Choekyi Nyima was six years old when he…

Continue Reading

Today, 10 December, is International Human Rights Day marking the adoption of Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), a set of principles that articulated for the first time the equal and inalienable entitlement of every human being to basic rights and fundamental freedoms and is considered the foundational document of international human rights legal system. The UDHR was drafted by…

Continue Reading

The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) is pleased to announce the release of a special report on the eve of the 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, opening on 18 October 2017. The report delivers the history and current status of the ‘rights defense’ movement, known in Tibetan as “bsTun rgol khrims gtugs” (Eng: “Defending rights…

Continue Reading

The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) is pleased to announce the release of “Fifty-four Days”, a book written by Tibetan monk named Lu Kunchok Gyatso, who lives in Tibet. The Tibetan language book is a collection of journal entries on the author’s dangerous journey over the Himalayas in the year 1994 to seek blessings from His Holiness…

Continue Reading

to top