By Kalsang Rinchen
Dharamsala, April 20 – The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) said it is disappointment over its “de facto expulsion” from the United Nations Review Conference on Racism (DRC) being held in Geneva, Switzerland, from 20 -24 April 2009.
“The Centre is appalled by the decision of its non-accreditation to the DRC by the preparatory committee on procedural ground. TCHRD is one of the several non-governmental organisations whose accreditation was overstepped upon by the preparatory committee due to a procedural matter on 17 April 2009. Government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) objected to the Centre’s accreditation,” the Tibetan NGO monitoring human rights in Tibet said on its website.
The Tibetan NGO described the move by government of the PRC to object to its participation as “a highly discriminatory”.
TCHRD received its accreditation to the World Conference Against Racism (WCR) in Durban in 2001 when the General Assembly voted the Centre’s accreditation to the World Conference.
The Centre said its accreditation would have been automatic had PRC not raised its second objection and asked for 14 days to review TCHRD’s latest response when the Prepcom actually had only three working days.
Due to the failure to resolve the issue behind closed doors, the Prepcom on 17 April this year took a decision “not to take action” on the accreditation of several NGOs which included TCHRD. The European Union which did not act to overturn the decision described the situation as the “de facto explusion” of TCHRD, a view that is shared by Australia.
The NGO claims “two rounds of formal exchanges” between the TCHRD and the government of the PRC regarding the Centre’s accreditation to the DRC.
TCHRD said PRC should face the reality and constructively work towards eliminating racism in Tibet rather than blocking the voices of the oppressed.
