On 25th of April 2005, the Tibetan Women’s Association (TWA) is organizing a ‘Free Panchen Lama’ concert in TIPA, Dharamshala at 7pm, on the 16th Birthday of Gendhun Choekyi Nyima, the 11th Panchen Lama of Tibet.
The Concert is an entry free event. The purpose of the Concert is to create greater awareness and support for the on-going international campaign for the release of Panchen Lama. It is one of the many campaign activities of TWA on Panchen Lama. Some of the campaign activities are in collaboration with the International Tibet Support Network (ITSN) of whom TWA is a member and some will be jointly carried out with Tibetan NGOs, ICT Europe and friends of TWA (FOTWA) worldwide
The year 2005 is crucial as well as a great opportunity to pressurize the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to question China about Panchen Lama when China face the Committee in September this year. The Committee on the Rights of the Child is a body of independent experts that monitors implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child by its State members. The last time China appeared before the Committee was in 1996.
The TWA hopes that through such campaign activities, we will be able to generate concerted support from international communities targeted at the UNCRC to pressurize the Chinese government to:
- disclose the whereabouts of Gendhun Choekyi Nyima and his parents,
- allow members of UNCRC to visit him, and
- eventually secure his release from the Chinese “protective custody”.
