By Ngawang C. Drakmargyapon
Phayul Special Correspondent
United Nations, Geneva, 20 June – More than 200 Tibetans and their supporters gathered before the United Nations building yesterday afternoon as the 
UN’s much publicized new Human Rights Council held its inaugural session. In a memorandum mailed to Ambassador Luis Alfonso De Alba of Mexico, the President of the Human Rights Council, the Tibetan Community in Switzerland and Liechtenstein along with Tibetan organization in Switzerland, appealed to the Council: “To urge China to step up the ongoing dialogue with the representatives of the Dalai Lama in order to reach a mutually acceptable solution to the Tibet issue without further delay.” Another memorandum was delivered at Palais Wilson which is the premises of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights where the Tibetan appeal was received by a staff of Ms. Louise Arbour, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Inside the Assembly Hall of the UN complex in Geneva, the Human Rights Council was opened by Mr. Jan Eliasson of Sweden who is the current President of the UN General Assembly. Mr. Eliasson, who is also the Swedish Foreign Minister, in his remarks said: “You, who created and inspired the creation of the Council, demonstrated foresightedness as well as a sense of compromise and responsibility during the arduous road to completion of our work. Now you have to show determination and courage to translate intentions and words to changing of realities and taking action. This requires from all of us statesmanship and preparedness not only to examine others but also to examine ourselves.”
Mr. Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General reminded the Council that the negotiations leading to the creation of the body were tough adding that “compromise was necessary, though in the end principles are not sacrificed.” Concerning the future of the Human Rights Council; Mr. Annan said: “For the moment it is a subsidiary organ of the Assembly (General). But within five year the Assembly will review its status. I venture to hope – and I suggest it should be your ambition – that within five years your work will have so clearly established the Human Rights Council’s authority that there will be a general will to amend the Charter (of the United Nations), and to elevate it to the status of a Principal Organ of the United Nations.”
The Tibetan rally began yesterday afternoon at the House of Associations in central Geneva where Mr. Régis de Battista, the director of the House received the Tibetans, including Phuntsok Nyidron, a former political prisoner from Tibet. She arrived in Switzerland last week from the United States of America to seek political asylum. After a formal welcome from Mr. Lobsang Gangshontsang, President of the Tibetan Community in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, Phuntsok Nyidron spoke to the media present at this gathering on the ordeals of Tibetan political prisoners. On the issue of survival, she said that the unity of the Tibetan political prisoners was the most inspiring strength to be able to withstand the pressure of prison atrocities. But she confessed that the thought of suicide did come up during her imprisonment adding that she never expected to be freed but to die in prison.
Tibetans and their supporters carrying banners which had slogans such as: “Human Rights Also in Tibet”, “Dialogue: Solution for Tibet China Issue,” “Help Tibet” and “Support the Non-Violent Freedom Struggle of Tibet” marched from the House of Associations to Palais Wilson. At this stop prayers were recited by monks of Choekhor Ghon Monastery led by its abbot Ven. Phuntsok Tashi. At around 4.30 pm, the Tibetans arrived at Place de Nations in front of the UN building where the gathering was addressed by several people including once again by Phuntsok Nyidron. One of the speakers was Mr. Sonam Monkhar, Member of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile from Europe, who gave a brief introduction to the Tibetans about the creation of the new Human Rights Council.
Inside the United Nations here, as the Human Rights Council began its work yesterday morning, there was a noticeable absence of visible Tibetan participants although representatives of International Campaign for Tibet Europe and Norwegian Tibet Committee came to attend the session.
One surprise speaker at the opening ceremony of the Council’s first meeting was Ms. Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate from Kenya who ended her speech with these remarks: “As continue to plant trees, and to protect those that are standing, let us remember that victims of human rights reflect our human values as a civilized society. We can still make our world a better place for all mankind. But let us remember that while the rest of the species can survive without us, we cannot survive without them.”
For the next few days, the Human Rights Council is scheduled to hear from dignitaries from around the world under a debate called the “High Level Segment”. This afternoon China’s Vice-Foreign Minister Mr. Yang Jiechi is scheduled to speak to the Council. The website of United Nations webcast the statements from this link: http://www.un.org/webcast/unhrc/ Last week Jiang Yu a spokesperson of China’s Foreign Ministry said that the Council “should handle human rights questions in a just, objective a non-selective manner, play a effective role in promoting and safeguarding human rights and avoid following the old path of the sessions of Commission on Human Rights, which was plagued with double standards and political confrontation.”
But Ms. Louise Arbour, the United Nations highest human rights official in her opening remarks to the Human Rights Council said: “We should always recall that no single country’s human rights record is pristine. Impunity, oppression, and discrimination are sadly pervasive, to varying degrees. Democratic space and participatory governance have not ceased to be challenged. Pillage of resources by the strong continues to deprive the weak. But let’s also remember that today’s tyrants, abusers and predators can escape neither the judgment of history nor, increasingly, the reach of justice in their lifetime.”
