Dharamshala, 17th July: This Saturday evening on International Day of Justice in McLeod Ganj’s Main Square, five major Tibetan non-governmental organizations launched a movement calling on international governments, organizations, and world leaders to hold China accountable for depriving Tibetans, Uyghurs, Southern Mongolians, Hongkongers, Taiwanese, and Chinese democratic activists of justice.
The Movement’s requests
- The movement urge governments and Olympians to boycott the Beijing 2022 Games in solidarity with Tibetans, Uyghurs, Hongkongers, Southern Mongolians, Taiwanese, and Chinese democracy activists.
- The movement called on the international community to ensure that Tibetans and others living under the harsh government of the Chinese Communist Party receive effective justice and have their grievances addressed.
- The movement called on international organizations and world leaders to hold China accountable for not only denying Tibetans and others justice but also for causing so much havoc by concealing the Corona Virus outbreak.
Since the illegal takeover of Tibet, China has maintained control over the territory through threatening and enforcing arbitrary detentions and punishments. More than a million Tibetans have been persecuted and murdered. Over 6000 monasteries were destroyed, and 99.9% of monks and nuns were disrobed. Within Tibet, the Chinese Communist Party continues to impose severe restrictions and use ruthless measures to suppress and imprison any form of protest.
Tibetans inside Tibet have resorted to self-immolation as a result of such hostile actions. Since 2009, 157 Tibetans have set themselves on fire inside Tibet in protest of China’s illegal occupation. All of the self-immolators demanded His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama’s return and Tibet’s independence.
For more than sixty years, the Chinese Communist Party has continuously and systematically abused Tibetans’ basic human rights and denied them justice. They continue to silence musicians, writers, activists, journalists, and human rights defenders, as well as rejecting their calls for justice. Their rejection of democracy in Hong Kong, as well as their continued detention of Tibetans, South Mongolians, and Uyghurs for no apparent cause, is a serious assault on the world’s current justice.
Despite Justice and the Chinese government’s denials of human rights breaches, the International Olympic Committee awarded Beijing the 2022 Winter Olympics. Participating in the 2022 Winter Olympics runs the risk of legitimizing these violations, and doing so would be akin to sanctioning China’s extermination of Tibetans, Uyghurs, and others.