Latest Reports from Tibetan Human Rights Group

By Migmar Dolkar / January 22, 2014;

A cover picture of the annual report
Photo: tchrd

Earlier this month the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), a research centre based in Dharamsala, released its annual report for 2013. The Report focuses on the human rights situation in Tibet. TCHRD also released a special report , “Gulags of Tibet,”describing the strategy of re-education through labour in Tibet.

The annual report is available both in Tibetan and English, and it focuses on the topics of civil and political rights, religious repression, economic, social and cultural rights, China’s development strategy and self immolations.

The theme of the 2013 annual report consists of the Chinese continued implementation of nomad resettlement and relocation policy for their own advantage. Tibetan nomads have been forced to move from their ancestral land to urban areas irrespectively of their willingness. In the wake of the forced relocations, the Chinese are explioting rich mineral resources such as gold, oil, lithium, copper and chrome from the nomadic lands.

It was widely estimated that 90% of Tibetan nomads in Qinghai province will be resettled by the end of 2013.

The report consists of fresh data from Tibet which includes exclusive interviews of Tibetans from Amchok (Ch: Amuqu), Labrang (Ch: Xianhe), Rebkong (Ch: Tongren), Chentsa (Ch: Jianzha), Machen (Ch: Dawu), Mangra (Ch: Guinan) and Golog (Ch: Guoluo) concerning self-immolation protests, nomad resettlement, censorship, language rights and land rights as well as some photographs of Tibetans living in Tibet.

TCHRD launches the Annual Report 2013 and Gulags of Tibet
Photo: tibettimes

The TCHRD’s special report “Gulags of Tibet’ contains research on the history and evolution of the re-education through labour (RTL) system, analysis of the current RTL laws. The rights group maintains that RTL violates the international prohibitions on artbitrary detention, forced labour and torture. The report features interviews with Tibetan RTL survivors who tell their personal stories of being locked up in forced labour camps.

In late December 2013, China addressed the abolition of RTL in the form of arbitrary detention used by the Chinese government for over 15 years to imprison political dissidents and other opponents. “China must abolish the RTL in both name and function to be meaningful,” said Tsering Tsomo, the Director of TCHRD.

In 2013 alone 119 Tibetans were arrested and a total of 893 Tibetans still held in prisons and labour camps run by China.