Dissenting Hero Tashi Dorjee: “Will protest until Tibet is free!”

“No matter how happy we are here, we don’t have a place to call our own. We live on foreign land. It is one of the main reasons why we protest.  If we protest together, our wish will be fulfilled and that’s why we need to protest.

“I even tell my children that I will keep on protesting until Tibet is free!”

Our dissenting hero of this week Tashi Dorjee is an ardent human rights activist and a former member of the Local Tibetan Assembly of Dharamshala. He has also served as the gyakpon (local leader) of Dharamshala for the last 18 years. As an activist, Mr Dorjee has taken part in numerous peace marches for Tibet all across India and was detained several times.

Tashi Dorjee joins the #WhyProtest campaign to call on China to immediately

· End policies and practices that are incompatible with international human rights standards on the right to peaceful assembly;

· Repeal policy of resorting to lethal force to suppress and detain peaceful protesters;

· Punish government officers responsible for arbitrary detention and torture of peaceful protesters;

· Ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and International Convention on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearance;

·  Invite UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association to assess the current state of freedom of peaceful assembly in Tibet

The #WhyProtest campaign, launched by TCHRD on 3 May to highlight freedom of expression, shines light on the brave and inspiring stories of peaceful Tibetan protesters that will tear through the cloak of coronavirus pandemic used by China to hide escalating repression and persecution of peaceful dissent in Tibet.

During the months leading up to this year’s International Human Rights Day on 10 December, the campaign will feature messages of hope, inspiration, and defiance from 30 activists and human rights defenders.

Join the #WhyProtest Campaign by sharing our digital campaign messages on your timeline or your stories of defending the right to protest and why the freedom to dissent matters to you. If interested, write to Ms Tenzin Dawa for further information: tenzin.dawa@tchrd.org

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