Harold Mandel
Examiner.com
July 5, 2012
There has been some hope among Buddhists that a recognition of the seriousness of the situation in Tibet by the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) will encourage China to move for affirmative changes in the region. The Central Tibetan Administration has reported in a July 4, 2012 news release “Intervention on Tibet at the UNHRC.” On July 3, 2012 while discussing the issues of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance, the human rights situation in Tibet was raised by the UNHRC.
The UNHRC has made specific reference to discrimination faced by Tibetans under Chinese rule in Tibet in respect to culture, social, religion and language. Mr. Kayta, while speaking on behalf of the Society for Threatened Peoples and Movement, said that despite China’s obligations under international law, racial discrimination faced by Tibetans under the Chinese authorities is getting worse since March 2008 widespread protests erupted in all Tibetan areas under China’s administration.
It has been noted that Tibetans living in Lhasa and in TAR but born in other regions of Tibet have been expelled to their place of birth. However, the hundreds of thousands of Chinese from mainland China who are in Tibet can move about freely. This has been pointed out as clearly being discriminatory against Tibetans.
Furthermore, it has been noted that China’s development policy in Tibet is also discriminatory by design and implementation, and has been conceived and carried out without meaningful participation of the local Tibetan people. There are also concerns regarding the restrictions on the use of Tibetan spoken and written language in Tibetan schools as imposed by Chinese authorities. The series of self-immolations by Tibetans are seen by the UNHRC as symptoms of continued widespread discrimination by the Chinese authorities.
