London | 29th September 2022
Contact: Tsering Passang, Founder and Chairman, Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities (GATPM) | Email: info@gatpm.com
A Statement by the Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities concerning Tibet, East Turkestan and Hong Kong
The Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities condemn Pakistan and other China-puppet countries for their recent Joint Statement concerning Tibet, Xinjiang (East Turkestan) and Hong Kong. Pakistan delivered the Joint Statement on behalf of a Group of 68 countries at the 51st session of the UN Human Rights Council, on 26th September 2022.
China’s puppet countries, led by Pakistan, deliberately portray Tibet and East Turkestan as “China’s internal affairs” but this is historically inaccurate. Tibet, a landlocked Buddhist nation with a population of six million, and East Turkestan (Ch: Xinjiang), a peaceful Uyghur Muslim nation, were independent countries before Communist China’s illegal occupation and annexation. After coming to power in 1949 Mao Tsetung ordered the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to invade Tibet and East Turkestan on 1st October 1949. Both Tibet and East Turkestan resisted their occupation and are held only by military force. The CCP does not speak for the Tibetan or Uyghur peoples.
Over a million Tibetans died as a direct result of Communist China’s illegal occupation. In its 2022 Annual Report, the independent watchdog organisation, Freedom House reported Tibet as the least free countries in the world alongside South Sudan and Syria. Right now, nearly a million Tibetans, many as young as six, are forcefully being entered into China’s colonial boarding schools with the long-term object of annihilating Tibetan identity, language, culture, history, and their religion. The Chinese authorities are collecting DNA samples of Tibetan children, some as young as three, without their parents’ consent. This is a matter of great concern, and it must be stopped.
The Uyghur Tribunal, an independent tribunal in London, made a ruling in 2021 that the Chinese State has committed genocide against the Uyghur Muslims and other minorities. Whilst welcoming this independent ruling, governments and parliaments worldwide have condemned the Chinese State for genocide against the Uyghurs and other minorities.
Pakistan and other China-puppet countries must also not ignore the ongoing gross violations of human rights in Hong Kong. Like any other people in the world, the people of Hong Kong should be allowed to continue to enjoy their fundamental rights as enshrined in the UN Declaration on Human Rights and which the CCP agreed to recognise at the time of the handover from the U.K. in 1997.
The CCP’s expansionist aims to deny freedom of expression and belief to both Buddhist Tibet and Muslim East Turkestan while utilising its soft power to fuel infrastructure development projects in China-puppet countries including Pakistan, and at the same time seeks to annex Taiwan and gain absolute control of the South China Seas in defiance of international law. Such double standards cannot be ignored. All member states on the UN Human Rights Council must carry out their duty and moral responsibility to defend and protect human rights violations, wherever this is taking place, including in within China, Tibet, East Turkestan, and Hong Kong.
The Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities condemn Pakistan and other China-puppet countries as members of the UN Human Rights Council for failing to uphold the very principles of the UN Charter on Human Rights. China must be held accountable for its gross violations of human rights in the territories it controls, and Pakistan and other China-puppet countries must stop pandering to the dictators and blindly supporting brutal regimes in China and Russia.
-Ends-
Joint Statement delivered by Pakistan on Behalf of a Group of 68 countries at the 51st session of the Human Rights Council, on 26th September 2022
“Mr. President,
I have the honor to speak on behalf of 68 cross-regional countries. Respect for sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of states and non-interference in internal affairs of sovereign states represent basic norms governing international relations. Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Tibet related issues are China’s internal affairs. We oppose politicization of human rights and double standards, or interference in China’s internal affairs under the pretext of human rights.
We maintain that all parties should abide by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, adhere to the principles of universality, impartiality, objectivity and non-selectivity, and respect the right of the people of each state to choose independently the path for development in accordance with their national conditions. All human rights should be treated with the same emphasis, with sufficient importance attached to economic, social and cultural rights and the right to development in particular.
Today human beings are faced with multiple challenges including the COVID-19 pandemic. The international community should uphold multilateralism, strengthen solidarity and coordination, and respond jointly to global challenges, advance world peace and development, and promote and protect human rights.
Thank you, Mr. President.”
List of Co-sponsors:
Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahrain, Belarus, Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, China, Comoros, Congo, Cuba, Djibouti, Dominica, DPRK, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, Iraq, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Lao PDR, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Pakistan, Palestine, Papua New Guinea, Russian Federation, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Syria, Tajikistan, Togo, Turkmenistan, UAE, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe
References:
Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities 