UN Rights Council Still Silent on Tibet By Patrick Goodenough March 25, 2008 CNS News.com Original Source: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/viewstory.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/200803/FOR20080325b.html (CNSNews.com) - China's crackdown on dissent in Tibet has made headlines around the world and sparked calls in some quarters for a full or partial boycott of the Beijing Olympics, but the U.N.'s top human rights body remains silent on the issue. The Human Rights Council has been in session in Geneva since March 3, but it has issued no formal statement on Tibet, despite calls by dozens of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for it to take up the issue in a special session. The 47-member HRC's four-week meeting ends on Friday. Protests in the Himalayan region marking the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against communist rule began on March 10, reportedly turned violent in places, and spread to Tibetan communities in three neighboring Chinese provinces. Foreign journalists have been banned from Tibet, but the Tibetan government-in-exile says about 140 people have been killed in clashes. Chinese officials have put the figure at around 20. The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, an umbrella group of 40 NGOs across Asia, and Amnesty International are among those to have called on the U.N. body to pay attention to Tibet. It is imperative that the Human Rights Council as the principal human rights organ of the United Nations take urgent measures by convening a special session to address the current situation in China, the Asian Forum said in a statement. It urged council members to address the ongoing gross human rights violations against Tibetans with regards to their right to life, freedom of expression and assembly, among others. The HRC was established in 2006 to replace the 60-year-old U.N. Commission for Human Rights, a body widely seen as ineffectual and constrained by the presence of countries considered to be among the worst human rights abusers. In the less than two years since, the council has held seven regular sessions, during which it has condemned Israel more than a dozen times, most recently in the early days of the current session. It has also held six special sessions to investigate allegations of abuses -- four involving Israel and one each on Darfur and Burma. When during a general debate on March 14, some NGOs called on the council to condemn the use of force against protesting Tibetans, the representative of China -- a member of the council -- replied that Tibet was an integral part of China and the government would continue to work to promote the human rights of all Chinese, including Tibetans. The U.N. Security Council has also not put the Tibet situation on its agenda. Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, whose country holds the council's rotating presidency, said last week that Tibet was clearly not a matter for the Security Council, or for the United Nations. China is a veto-wielding permanent member of the council. Lightning rod Outside of the U.N., the Tibet situation continues to make waves around the world, and has fueled calls for heads of state to stay away from the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. In Europe in particular, several governments are facing domestic political pressure to act. Providing a lightning rod for protesters, the Olympic torch relay began in Greece on Monday and will span the globe before arriving in Beijing for the Aug. 8 opening ceremony. The 130-day, 85,000-mile journey of harmony will be biggest in Olympic history. En route, it is due to pass through Tibet on June 19-21, and some human rights groups are calling for that leg to be canceled. Either Tibet is open or it's not, Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director for Human Rights Watch said on Monday. If it is, let independent monitors and the media go there. If it's not, the torch shouldn't go there either. The corporate sponsors of the torch relay, Coca Cola Co., Samsung Corp. and Lenovo Group Ltd, are also coming under pressure from advocacy groups to have Tibet removed from the relay route. In a sign of what may be to come, Monday's torch-lighting ceremony in Olympia, Greece, was briefly interrupted by members of the Paris-based media watchdog, Reporters Without Frontiers. Three protestors were arrested, but not before one unfurled a banner reading Boycott the country that tramples on human rights. We cannot let the Chinese government seize the Olympic flame, a symbol of peace, without denouncing the dramatic human rights situation in the country, the group said in a later statement. Chinese state media Tuesday ignored the protest, describing the torch-lighting ceremony as a success. As it travels around the world, the torch provides a focal point for protestors unhappy about Tibet as well as a range of other issues, from Beijing's suppression of domestic dissent and religious freedom to its close ties with the governments blamed for abuses in Burma and Sudan's Darfur province. On April 9, the torch is scheduled to move through San Francisco -- its only North American stop -- where Darfur activists are planning major protests. Beijing has repeatedly blamed the unrest in Tibet on the exiled Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, accusing him and his clique of trying to undermine China's hosting of the Olympics. For his part, the Dalai Lama has http://www.cnsnews.com/ForeignBureaus/archive/200803/FOR20080317b.html \t _blank reiterated that he does not support a boycott of the games. Competing for the 2008 Olympics hosting rights in 2001, Chinese officials undertook to ensure complete media freedom and the protection of minority national rights in the run-up and during the event. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), which awarded the games to Beijing over four other candidate cities, has come under growing criticism for not speaking out about China's human rights record. In a statement this week, IOC president Jacques Rogge said the events in Tibet were a matter of great concern, but stressed that the IOC was neither a political nor an activist organization. We believe that China will change by opening the country to the scrutiny of the world through the 25,000 media [representatives] who will attend the games, he said.