Tibetan NGO Releases Annual Human Rights Report

On Monday, the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy, a Tibetan non-governmental organization, released its annual report for 2011 on the human rights situation in Tibet.

The report was released in the north Indian town of Dharamsala, where the Tibetan government-in-exile is based and the Dalai Lama resides.

According to the report, the Chinese regime has not been fulfilling its international human rights obligations, and refuses to take any responsibility for the recent string of Tibetan self-immolations. Instead, the level of persecution has increased.

The executive director of the NGO, Tsering Tsomo, said that the recent self-immolations are indicative of the appalling human rights situation in Tibet, and will continue unless the Chinese regime addresses the issue peacefully.

[Tsering Tsomo, Executive Director, TCHRD]:
“We have made very clear in our report that unless and until Chinese government listens to the grievances of the Tibetan people and try to address it through peaceful means like dialogue, there are going to be more self- immolations in future as well and this will create a vicious cycle where on the one hand there is official repression and on the other hand there is this Tibetan resistance, so this will go on and on until and unless Chinese government takes action to resolve this issue.”

Thirteen Tibetans died from self-immolation in 2011, and three more have already perished in 2012.