Dharamsala, Feb. 5 – Australian and Chinese officials will meet on Monday for the Twelfth Australia-China Human Rights Dialogue, originally scheduled for late last year. Meanwhile authorities in Lhasa have arrested dozens of Tibetans as part of a renewed military crackdown ahead of the 50th Anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising on 10 March. Also on Monday China will come under examination at the UN in Geneva. The Chinese Government has been accused of subverting the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review process.
“For over a decade China has skilfully avoided any real accountability for its human rights violations. It has engaged willing governments in confidential bilateral dialogues while simultaneously subverting the UN and continuing its brutal human rights violations in Tibet,” said Paul Bourke, Executive Office of the Australia Tibet Council.
NGOs have criticised the Federal Government’s over-reliance on the annual confidential dialogue to bring improvements in human rights in China and Tibet, arguing this enables China to avoid public scrutiny and harms multilateral efforts to promote human rights.
A report (download pdf here)released by the Australia Tibet Council (ATC), containing recommendations for issues the Australian Government should raise during next week’s dialogue, paints a grim picture of intensifying and systematic human rights violations in Tibet. The report summarises the numerous accounts of arbitrary arrests, fatalities and incidents of torture following peaceful demonstrations in 2008 and outlines ever more oppressive measures to quell dissent ahead of the politically sensitive 50th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising.
The report also slams Australia’s bilateral dialogue for its lack of transparency and failure to deliver concrete outcomes. It recommends a series of improvements including reporting to parliament, an observer role for NGOs and establishing time-bound objectives. It further recommends the continuation of the dialogue only as part of a multifaceted approach to human rights in China and calls on the Prime Minister to publicly criticise the Chinese Governments’ ongoing crackdown in Tibet.
“Tibetans are facing the harshest repression since the Cultural Revolution,” continued Mr. Bourke, citing strict new measures to punish dissidents and restrict all expressions of Tibetan culture ahead of the 50th Anniversary of the Dalai Lama’s exile and full Chinese takeover of Tibet. “Despite a promising start, our PM now looks to be falling into the old pattern of dealing with these issues through a once-a-year official dialogue.”
Early last year the Prime Minister hinted at a stronger and more public approach to human rights in China and Tibet, raising the Tibet issue publicly in Beijing in April last year. However, Mr. Rudd has remained almost silent on Tibet since, despite the intensifying military crackdown and collapse of the Tibet-China dialogue.
The Twelfth Australia-China Human Rights Dialogue will take place in Canberra on Monday and Tuesday of next week (9, 10 February).
On Monday morning China is also up for assessment by the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The Chinese Government has been accused of undermining the UPR’s reporting procedures and attempting to dissuade UN members from asking questions on Tibet.
