TCHRD: Deeply concerned by China’s “forced cultural assimilation policy”
DHARAMSALA, 22 April: The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) expressed great concern over the “forced cultural assimilation policy” being executed across Tibet under China’s occupation.
“We are deeply concerned by a series of incidents that confirms the execution of the forced cultural assimilation policy being executed across Tibet under China’s occupation,” Tsering Tsomo, the director of the TCHRD said while launching its trilingual 2021 Annual Report on the human rights situation in Tibet.
Speaking about a Chinese propaganda message on a billboard on Lhasa Broadway that dons the cover of the annual report where China has replaced “pomegranate” with “kneading Tsampa” as a metaphor often used by the communist regime to describe the unification of all the ethnic groups in China, she added that the report “documents the persistent and grave human rights violations committed by the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), involving arbitrary detention and torture, religious repression, and a widespread crackdown on the right to freedom of expression and information.”
“What China calls unification means the sinicization of Tibetan buddhism, arbitrary detention and torture of Tibetan language campaigners and activists and the extermination of Tibetan language and culture,” TCHRD’s Researcher Nyima Woeser said.
The Dharamsala-based rights group said in its annual report that China justifies its harsh implementation of the sinicization policy with the rhetoric of “ethnic unity” and “building a modern socialist state.”
The annual report also highlighted how China’s “sinicization policy resulted in the systematic persecution of Tibetan educators, intellectuals, and cultural leaders.”
“The silencing of educated Tibetans who exercise considerable influence on Tibetan society assumes increased urgency due to the continued violation of education and language rights,” the rights group said.
Calling out China for the unabated human rights violations in Tibet on a daily basis, TCHRD declared that the CCP “must revise or repeal national laws and policies that engender human rights violations and uphold international human rights treaty obligations to respect, protect and fulfil fundamental human rights.”
The center also launched its revamped website at the same event today.
Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy is a registered non-governmental human rights organisation established in January 1996 in Dharamsala (India) with the mission to protect the human rights of the Tibetan people in Tibet and promote the principles of democracy in the exile Tibetan community by empowering Tibetan human rights advocates and monitoring, documenting, and campaigning against human rights abuses.
