On 3rd March 2023, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) issued its “Concluding Observations” at the Third Periodic Review of China.
For this Periodic Review in Geneva, China has sent a high-level delegation, consisting of representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the United Front Department of the CPC Central Committee, the Supreme People’s Court, Ministry of Education, National Ethnic Affairs Commission, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Civil Affairs, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, National Health Commission, National Religious Affairs Administration, National Disease Prevention and Control Administration, the State Council Information Office, and National Working Committee on Children and Women under the State Council, as well as the governments of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Macao Special Administrative Region. No Tibetan and Uyghur nationalities were part of this high-level delegation.
Whilst welcoming some positive measures taken by the Chinese State including, “The ratification of ILO Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29); and the ratification of the ILO Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105);” and “The adoption of the fourth National Human Rights Action Plan (2021-2025)”, the UN rights body was quite vocal about Beijing’s human rights failures. The UN Rights body specifically called on China for an “end to forced relocations and the state-run boarding school system in Tibet”.
The committee, consisting of independent experts, moreover expressed concern that Tibetans and Uyghurs amongst others living under China’s brutal rule, “face severe restrictions in the realization of their right to take part in cultural life, including the right to use and teach minority languages, history and culture.”
Some related excerpts on Tibet from the Committee’s “Concluding Observations”:
“Indigenous peoples
27. Noting the information provided during the dialogue with the State party, the Committee remains concerned about reports that resettlement of nomadic herdsmen, particularly Tibetan ones, is carried out in the State party without proper consultation and in most cases without free, prior and informed consent, particularly in the western provinces and in autonomous regions. The Committee is also concerned about reports that large numbers of small-scale farmers and nomadic herders, including from ethnic autonomous areas, have lost their traditional lands and livelihoods owing to poverty alleviation schemes and ecological restoration resettlement measures, and that compensation for expropriated property is often insufficient to maintain an adequate standard of living (arts. 1(2) and 2 (2)).
28. The Committee reiterates its recommendation[1] that the State party take all necessary measures to immediately halt non-voluntary resettlement of all nomadic herders, including Tibetan ones, from their traditional lands and non-voluntary relocation or rehousing programmes for other rural residents, such as small-scale farmers and that the State party carry out meaningful consultations with the affected communities in order to examine and evaluate all available alternative options, and offer full, adequate and timely compensation for expropriations already carried out.
Cultural and linguistic identity and expression in education
88. Noting the information provided during the dialogue with the State party, the Committee remains concerned about reports that ethnic minorities continue to face severe restrictions in the realization of their right to take part in cultural life, including the right to use and teach minority languages, history and culture. The Committee is concerned about reports of closures of schools providing instruction in minority languages, as well as in the Tibetan, Uyghur and/or Kazakh languages. The Committee is also concerned about reports of the large-scale campaign to eradicate Tibetan culture and language, as well as the general undermining of the linguistic identity of ethnic minorities by the assimilation policy of the State party, known as sinicization, including the coerced residential (boarding) school system imposed on Tibetan children (arts. 13, 14 and 15).
89. The Committee reiterates its recommendation that the State party take all necessary measures to ensure the full and unrestricted enjoyment by peoples and minorities of their right to enjoy fully their own cultural identity and take part in cultural life, and to ensure the use and practice of their language and culture, and immediately abolish the coerced residential (boarding) school system imposed on Tibetan children, as well as allowing private Tibetan schools to be established. The Committee also recommends that the State party ensure that Mandarin is not the only language allowed as the language of instruction vis-à-vis ethnic minorities and peoples.
Cultural heritage and practices of religious minorities
90. Noting the information provided during the dialogue with the State party, the Committee is concerned about reports of increasingly tighter regulation of religious practices in the context of the State party’s counter-terrorism and counter-extremism strategies, particularly increasing restrictions on expression of Muslim religious practices which put persons practicing standard tenets of Islamic religion and practice at risk of criminal sanction and/or being coerced into re-education in VETCs and/or being coerced into employment schemes which de facto amount to forced labour. The Committee is also concerned about reports of systematic and massive destruction of religious sites such as mosques, monasteries, shrines and cemeteries, particularly in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and in the Tibet Autonomous Region (art. 15).
91. The Committee reiterates its recommendation[1] that the State party take adequate measures to protect cultural diversity and the cultural practices and heritage of religious minorities, including the religious practices of Tibetans, Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Hui, and Mongols, including by protecting and restoring religious sites.”
The Committee considered the third periodic report of China,[1] including the fourth periodic report of Hong Kong SAR, China,[2] and the third periodic report of Macao SAR, China,[3] on the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights at its 5th and 7th meetings[4] held on 15 and 16 February 2023, and adopted the present concluding observations at its 30th meeting, held on 3 March 2023.
Click here for Committee’s full “Concluding Observations”
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