Accusing China of committing “cultural genocide” in Tibet, the Central Tibetan Administration on Sunday urged the UNHRC to hold a special session on “human rights violations” by China in Tibet and other regions under it. Dharamshala-based Central Tibetan Administration, also known as Tibetan government-in-exile, Lobsang Sangay asked the international community to “unite and ensure that China fulfils its obligations under international laws including human rights obligations before it is too late”.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Sangay said that on Saturday 50 UN independent experts from 30 UN Special Procedure mandate called on the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to “act with a sense of urgency” and take appropriate decisive measures including a special session and establishment of a special rapporteur to protect fundamental freedoms in China occupied regions including Tibet, Hong Kong, and Xinjiang.
“The Central Tibetan Administration and Tibetans from both inside and outside Tibet would like to thank the UN experts for their timely intervention and welcome their call for urgent decisive measures against the government of China,” he said.
Sangay said that In the last six decades and more, Tibetans within Tibet were suffering under the authoritarian rule of China.
The Chinese government has stripped off Tibetans of their basic human rights guaranteed under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, annihilating the distinct identity of Tibetans and denying them their inherent dignity of being human, he added.
He said that tortures, enforced disappearances, and destructions of monasteries carried out by China against Tibetans were acts of crimes against humanity and do not fall short of being categorised as “cultural genocide.
The persecution and suppression via high-tech surveillance by China, Sangay said, have forced 154 Tibetans from different walks of life in Tibet to self-immolate as a mark of peaceful protest against the Chinese authorities since 2009.
The unchecked, systemic, and egregious violations by the Chinese regime with impunity in Tibet have emboldened it to carry out similar violations in Xinjiang and now Hong Kong.
It is time to hold China accountable otherwise it will have an adverse global impact as evidenced by the Wuhan originated Covid-19 pandemic. As rightly noted by the UN experts, the violations by China are threatening world peace and security leading to human rights emergencies across the globe, he said.
CTA and the Tibetans from both inside and outside Tibet strongly support the call of the UN experts on the UN Human Rights Council to take urgent measures against the Chinese human rights violations.
We strongly urge the UNHRC and the member states to hold a special session to evaluate the human rights violations being carried out by China and to establish a country mandate of UN Special Rapporteur on China to monitor, analyse and report annually on the human rights situation in Tibet and other occupied regions, he said
