The party-state of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) continued its egregious human rights violations and abuses in Tibet by criminalizing basic human rights and freedoms, and engaging in arbitrary detention, torture, enforced disappearance, collective punishment and environmental destruction to name a few, according to the 2016 Annual Report on human rights situation in Tibet released by the Tibetan Centre…
Today we celebrate the 68th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. The rights and freedoms enshrined in the UDHR affirm that we are born free and equal, endowed with inherent rights to freedom of movement, expression, thought, privacy, religion, assembly, and a decent livelihood.
The ongoing demolition of monastic dwellings and eviction of monks and nuns at Larung Gar Buddhist Institute, one of the leading centres for Buddhist scholarship and practice in Tibet, demonstrate that religious freedom remains a distant reality for religious believers in Tibet.
Since 20 July, Chinese government-employed demolition squads have torn down more than half of the targeted 1000 monastic residences at Larung Gar Buddhist Institute in Serthar (Ch: Seda) County in Kardze (Ch: Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. The target will be achieved by the end of this year. The demolition order issued early this year also requires the eviction of thousands of monks and nuns from the institute. The ceiling requirement of 5000 monastics – 2000 monks and 3000 nuns – has necessitated the eviction of the rest of the residents. The total number of monastics, apart from lay and foreign practitioners, at the institute hovered around 10,000 before the demolition began.