Tag: human rights

Palden Trinley was released after seven years in prison.
Palden Thinley was released after seven years in prison.

A Tibetan monk who was recently released after completing a seven-year prison term is in critical condition following injuries suffered during detention and lack of medical care in prison.

Palden Thinley, 26, was released from Deyang prison on the afternoon of 17 May 2015 in Kardze (Ch: Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, in the Tibetan province of Kham, according to information received by Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD).
On the day of his release, prison authorities handed over Palden Thinley to County Public Security Bureau (PSB) officers in Kardze apparently to prevent local Tibetans from giving him a hero’s welcome. At around 3 am on 18 May 2015, the Kardze County PSB handed over Thinley to Dhato Township PSB, who in turn secretly summoned his family at night to pick him up.

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Basque Parliament
At TCHRD’s presentation before the HHRR (Human Rights) Commission of the Basque Parliament. Left, Basque parliament member Andoni Iturbe; middle, President of HHRR Commission and member of Basque parliament Maribel Vaquero; and right, TCHRD executive director Tsering Tsomo

The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) exposed major human rights violations committed by Chinese government in Tibet and the repressive policies that facilitate these violations during recent meetings and interactions with politicians, diplomats, academics, media and the general public in Basque Autonomous Region (Basque Country), Spain.

During a weeklong visit to Donostia/San Sebastian in Gipuzkoa Province, Basque Country, TCHRD executive director Tsering Tsomo drew attention to the repressive state of affairs in Tibet where the Chinese authorities continue to adopt a hardline approach denying basic human rights and freedoms that are taken for granted in many other countries. In her various public and private meetings, Tsomo strongly condemned China’s use of force, violence and fear to extract absolute loyalty and obedience from Tibetans to its repressive rule, and called Tibet a human rights black hole, a major blot on China’s international standing and reputation.

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Annual Report English CoverOn 7 February 2015 the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) released its 2014 Annual Report on human rights situation in Tibet. The report is available in English, Tibetan, and, for the first time, Chinese.

The Annual Report demonstrates that despite the promised reforms, the human rights situation in Tibet is continuing to deteriorate. In particular, the Annual Report highlights death in detention, collective punishment, and restrictions on the right to freedom of assembly and association. In all three areas the treatment of Tibetans has deteriorated substantially.

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geneva_photo
Tsering Tsomo addresses a protest rally in front the UN to focus attention on the recent self-immolation of Lhamo Tashi.

The director of the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), Ms. Tsering Tsomo, attended the 27th session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) at the United Nations in Geneva from 14 to 24 September 2014, to draw the Council’s attention to the pressing human rights issues inside Tibet. On the sidelines of the session, Ms. Tsomo met and briefed various UN Special Procedures mandate holders, diplomats and NGO representatives on the current situation in Tibet and strongly appealed for their support.

In addition to delivering an oral statement (a video of the statement is available here starting at 49:27) on behalf of the Society for Threatened Peoples at the HRC session, Ms. Tsomo held an hour-long briefing for assistants to seven UN Special Procedure mandate holders. On 23 September 2014, Ms. Tsomo met with assistants to Special Rapporteur on religious freedom or belief; Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression and opinion; Special Rapporteur on Torture; Special Rapporteur on right to education; Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association; Working Group on Arbitrary Detention; and Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.

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UNHCHR
Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein replaced Navi Pillay as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) would like to welcome Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein to the position of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, which he assumed on Monday, 1 September.

High Commissioner Al Hussein comes to office when expectations for what the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) can do are high and the threat to human rights is growing. As High Commissioner Al Hussein’s predecessor, Ms. Navi Pillay, is the most powerful single voice advocating for human rights in the world and she was willing to confront politically powerful States, including China, over their human rights policies.

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Cover of the special report on 'village democracy' in Tibetan
Cover of the special report on ‘village democracy’ in Tibetan

Article 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) proclaims that ‘all are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of law.’ Although the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has signed many UN treaties and conventions, it has consistently failed to implement and abide by them, and has resorted to its domestic laws and regulations to violate the basic and legitimate rights of its citizens.

As a member of the United Nations, the PRC is under legal obligation to educate its citizens, and implement within its territorial boundary, the laws, conventions and treaties of the UN. Instead of raising popular awareness about international human rights law, more emphasis is put on repressive domestic laws promoted and propagated under forced education campaigns such as ‘legal education’ or ‘patriotic education’.

To counter this, the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), Dharamsala, has come out with two new publications titled “Nyamdrel Gyaltsog Ki Trim Yig Khag” (‘A Collection of United Nations’ Conventions) and “Sota Chen Ki Mangtso” (‘Monitored Democracy’).

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Created in 1985, the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) is today the main coalition of international non-governmental organisations (NGO) fighting against torture, summary executions, enforced disappearances and all other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) is the main coalition of international non-governmental organisations fighting against torture, summary executions, enforced disappearances and all other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

Speaking for itself and TCHRD, the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) read a joint statement (below) during the 25th session of the Human Rights Council condemning the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) failure to sign the optional protocols to the Convention Against Torture and to prevent arbitrary detention, torture, and the killing of prisoners.  The statement specifically focused on the gap between the PRC’s rhetoric and its practice. Despite the many well-documented cases, the PRC continues to deny that there is any torture, arbitrary detention, or persecution of human rights defenders.

The joint statement also mentioned the death of Cao Shunli, a human rights defender who died on 14 March 2014 after she was denied medical care while in imprisoned by the PRC. Other NGOs also tried to discuss Cao Shunli’s death and Chinese Human Rights Defenders tried to hold a minute of silence to honor Cao Shunli, who submitted documents on the PRC’s human rights progress to the Human Rights Council before her abduction in September 2013. The PRC was able to delay the session and block the minute of silence.

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Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) will be hosting the Annual Human Rights Symposium on Tibet at the Tibetan Youth Hostel in Bangalore, South India from 21 to 23 February 2014. The symposium will be attended by twenty-five Tibetan graduate students studying political science, international relations, human rights, law, literature, and history in Indian colleges and universities. The…

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The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) is pleased to announce the release of Ancestors’ Tomb, a book written by a Tibetan university student in Ngaba in the Tibetan province of Amdo.

Mar Jang-nyug (pseudonym) is a Tibetan writer who was born and brought up in Marong village of Ngaba in the Tibetan province of Amdo. Ancestors’ Tomb reveals the oppressive nature of Chinese rule in Tibet. With his writings, Mar Jang-nyug bears witness to the suffering and pain endured by Tibetans and exposes the authoritarian workings of the Chinese government.

Through an array of prose and poetry, the book describes the dictatorial nature of the Chinese government, its relentless marginalization of Tibetan language and culture, destruction of environment through unrestricted deforestation and mining and its ever-increasing violations of human rights.

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An old Chinese Communist Party propaganda poster.
An old Chinese Communist Party propaganda poster.

Mar Jang-nyug (pseudonym) is a Tibetan writer born and brought up in Marong village of Ngaba in the Tibetan province of Amdo. TCHRD presents another translated and edited essay from the author’s forthcoming book, Ancestors’ Tomb. This essay was written on 25 March 2012, a few months after the death of the author’s mother.

Ancestors’ Tomb is replete with accounts of unaddressed grievances and unfulfilled aspirations, at once personal and yet political, as is demonstrated by the tortured body of the author’s mother and her legacy to her son of a wounded heart, both bearing witness to brutalities bygone and present.

The invoking of memories about Ngaba during the nascent stages of Chinese rule is telling in that it gives a historical context – resonant with the underlying Buddhist theme of cause and effect – to the spate of self-immolation protests in Tibet in recent years.

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