Comité Canada Tibet

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 Journée internationale des droits humains

LA CRISE DES DROITS HUMAINS ESCALADE AU TIBET

Le Comité Canada Tibet envoie un appel au Premier Ministre du Canada

Montréal, le 10 décembre 2012 – Pendant que la Journée internationale des droits humains est soulignée partout dans le monde, la crise des droits humains au Tibet continue à escalader. Pendant la dernière année, au moins 81 Tibétains se sont immolés au Tibet, faisant grimper à 94 le nombre total des immolations depuis 2011. Leurs demandes sont claires: la liberté et le retour du Dalai Lama au Tibet.

Cette semaine, le Comité Canada Tibet fait appel au Premier Ministre Stephen Harper, dans une lettre (ci-dessous) qui lui est adressée, pour que le Canada prenne l'initiative de la création d'un forum multilatéral qui implémenterait de nouvelles actions diplomatiques afin d'adresser la crise au Tibet.

“L'augmentation du recours au immolations en tant qu'expression de résistance est un signe clair que les politiques de la Chine au Tibet sont un profond échec'', affirme Carole Samdup, Directrice exécutive du Comité Canada Tibet. “Après six décennies de régime chinois, il est temps que la communauté internationale appuie sa diplomatie discrète par une approche plus forte envers le Tibet.”

Le 10 décembre marque aussi 25 ans depuis la création du Comité Canada Tibet, suite aux révoltes de 1987, à Lhasa, la capitale du Tibet. L'anniversaire sera commémoré par une série d’évènements encourageant les Canadiens à se mettre Debout pour le Tibet.

Contact:

Carole Samdup (Anglais):  514-487-0665

Eva Cirnu (Français): 514-632-6635

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Letter to Stephen Harper

December 6, 2012

Dear Prime Minister,

As Canadians commemorate International Human Rights Day, the situation inside Tibet is deteriorating rapidly.  During the past 12 months, at least 79 Tibetans have self-immolated in protest against China’s harsh policies, 28 in November alone.  Their demands are simple – political freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama to his homeland.

Today, the Canada Tibet Committee appeals to you and to your government to stand up for Tibet.  Mr. Prime Minister, your government has been a stalwart supporter of the Tibetan cause and in 2006 it awarded honourary citizenship to His Holiness the Dalai Lama as a demonstration of that support.  Now the Tibetan people need your help more than ever. 

T      Tibetan Canadians and their supporters across the country are asking that you urgently convene a taskforce to consider the following three recommendations:

• Canada should play a leadership role in efforts to establish an international “contact group” or other form of multilateral mechanism designed explicitly to address the human rights crisis in Tibet. This could be an initiative of Canada’s Embassy in Beijing or its Mission in Geneva.  The purpose of the contact group would be to coordinate pressure from western governments and thereby increase their influence on the Government of China;

• Canada should renew efforts to send Canadian diplomats to Tibetan areas where most of the self-immolations have taken place, while at the same time initiating efforts to establish a permanent diplomatic presence in Tibet.  Until this objective can be achieved, Canada should increase Embassy resources to more closely monitor the situation in Tibet, to verify the security of self-immolators’ families, and to ensure that adequate medical treatment is provided to those self-immolators who have survived their action;

•  Canada should press China to allow human rights monitors into Tibet as requested by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay in her public statement dated November 2, 2012.  Permission for human rights monitors must be accompanied by access for foreign journalists to the Tibet Autonomous Region as well as to Tibetan areas in Gansu, Sichuan, Qinghai, and Yunnan.

Canada has a proud history of human rights promotion around the world. As we mark International Human Rights Day 2012, Canadian support for human rights in Tibet has never been so important.  On behalf of the Canada Tibet Committee membership across Canada, I urge you to act now so that the ultimate sacrifice being made by so many Tibetans is not made in vain.

Sincerely,

Carole Samdup