One of the most notable corollaries of the 2008 protests in Tibet is the unprecedented surge in artistic expression and intellectual activism among young, educated and bilingual Tibetans. Born after the 1949 occupation and the dark years of Cultural Revolution, they are equipped with the means to understand the politico-socio dynamics of one-party system in Chinese-ruled Tibet. Outraged by the…
“This heinous practice is not permitted under any circumstances. No exceptional circumstances whatsoever may be invoked to justify an enforced disappearance.”
Jeremy Sarkin, UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (Nov. 2011)
Imagine a close loved one being taken into custody, held incommunicado for days, weeks, or even years, without any contact or communication with you or other family members. Imagine the mental anguish and torment of not knowing where they are, if they are being tortured or have been killed. In this respect, enforced disappearances have a “doubly paralyzing impact,” not only on the victims, but also on their loved ones who live in a constant state of anxiety and fear about the fate of the disappeared person. Today, TCHRD, on the eve of the 98th session of the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances, releases an introductory report and analysis on enforced disappearances in Tibet.
In 1998, the first self-immolation protest by a Tibetan took place in New Delhi, India, when Thupten Ngodup set himself on fire during a hunger strike organised by the Tibetan Youth Congress. In Tibet, on 27 February 2009, self-immolation as a form of protest occurred for the first time in Tibet when Tapey, a 20-year-old monk from Kirti Monastery in Ngaba set his body on fire to protest Chinese rule. Since then, over 50 Tibetans have resorted to self-immolation protests to publicly express their discontent against the repressive policies of the Chinese government in Tibet.
The democratization process of Tibetan society in exile has been ongoing since the 1960s, with the Dalai Lama as its driving force and architect. This process culminated in the landmark decision of 2011, when the Dalai Lama formally announced his complete withdrawal from political life but also the dissolution of the Ganden Phodrang, Tibet’s historical form of government, to make way for a fully-fledged democratic government, thus marking a new era of Tibetan government with the separation of religion and politics. In August 2011, Dr Lobsang Sangay, a Harvard-educated academic, became the first elected political leader of the Tibetan people. As the Dalai Lama himself said on 19 March 2011: “The rule by kings and religious figures is outdated. We have to follow the trend of the free world, which is that of democracy…Contrary to the system of the Chinese Communist’s authoritarian rule in Tibet, our small community in exile has been able to establish a complete modern democratic system.”
In April 2009, the State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) released a report titled National Human Rights Action Plan (2009-2010). The National Human Rights Action Plan (NHRAP) was the Chinese government’s first formal document that ‘guaranteed’ human rights to Chinese citizens and pledged to address human rights violations in the PRC. The international community warmly…
The year 2008 marked the largest series of protests against Chinese rule in Tibet since 1959. A vibrant literary and cultural resurgence has emerged in Tibet in the wake of the 2008 Uprising, and feelings of Tibetan nationalism have perhaps never been so strong. Courageous Tibetans are gradually rising to share their views of life under Chinese rule. Communist Party…
This report attempts to reconstruct the events that unfolded over the past couple of years in Tibet which led to the death of Tibetans under the Chinese regime following massive protests that swept across the Tibetan plateau with pertinent emphasis being put to identify the details of people who have died and were killed in the events, although it would…
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Today, it can incontrovertibly be said that the events of that day (10 March 2008) constituted the largest Tibetan uprising since 1959. The most striking element of the recent protests across Tibet was their spontaneous nature, and the manner in which they completely defied a repressive regime supported by heavy military forces. Unlike the September 1987 protest in Lhasa, and…
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