Cover of TCHRD’s Special Report on Right to Education in Tibet
Sixty-six years ago, on 10 December 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a fundamental part of the international human rights system and, along with the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, is part of the international bill of human rights. Since 1950, every people and countries across the world have commemorated 10 December as Human Rights Day.
‘Human Rights-365’ is the theme of Human Rights Day this year. ‘Human Rights-365’ recognizes that human rights must be protected and defended every day.
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) has recently obtained a book written by Lhaden, a Tibetan writer and activist living inside Tibet. This latest book, titled ‘Resistance Through Cooperation With Law’ (Tib: Tungol Trimlug’) is Lhaden’s second, published and now being translated into English by TCHRD.
TCHRD presents an excerpt from Lhaden’s latest book translated from its original Tibetan version. He writes under the pseudonym, ‘Di Lhaden’. In this excerpt, Di Lhaden writes about his motivation for writing the book, expresses his belief that Tibet’s non-violent struggle has the potential to achieve genuine peace and reconciliation between the Tibetan people and the Chinese government. Di Lhaden asks the China to acknowledge, rather than violently crush, the legitimate grievances and aspirations of the Tibetan people, which he believes are in accord with the laws and constitution of the People’s Republic of China. He believes that Tibet’s non-violent struggle is inspired by the teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
This book represents one of the many voices of millions of Tibetans inside Tibet who live in a system that penalizes human rights activists as criminals and denies basic human rights and freedoms enshrined in the Chinese domestic law and international human rights law. Read in the context of China’s recent rhetoric on rule of law, Lhaden’s book presents a formidable challenge to Chinese claims of respecting, protecting and fulfilling human rights according to ‘rule of law’.
