ICT at UN Racism Conference

The Durban Review Conference on racism made global headlines mostly for the grandstanding rhetoric of Iranian President Ahmadinejad and the no-show by diplomats from numerous Western nations, including the United States. And let’s not forget the clowns!

But the UN conference in Geneva last week dealt with issues of real substance on racism, freedom of religion and a whole host of other issues that both divide and unite UN member states. ICT was the only Tibetan organization given accreditation to attend, and for that matter there were no independent Chinese voices able to attend either. So for ICT, it was hugely important to have a voice in the room during the four-day conference.

This is an important issue for Tibetans, and one which has become all the more important since March 2008. Tibetans have frequently described this period as a return to the excesses of the Cultural Revolution. They speak of a deliberate, concerted effort by Chinese officials and state media to portray Tibetans as ungrateful, violent and anti-Chinese, a situation which they argue entrenches mutual distrust, drives the two populations further apart and makes a sustainable solution for Tibetans inside China all the more elusive.

It may surprise some readers that you cannot, as a human rights NGO, simply attend the UN. Your ability to attend depends very much on whether a powerful government has been able to effectively lobby against you and ensure that your request for accreditation is blocked. Our counterparts at Human Rights in China have fallen foul of this, as have our colleagues at Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy—neither of whom could attend the review, despite their ability to speak with authority on the issues as they relate to China. So when you get a chance to attend, you take it!

The real value in attendance is that you get to meet and discuss with diplomats and some of the key UN experts during the course of the conference, hand over information or just gather info that you can use on later visits. On this occasion, we were able to do a little more than that—ICT was able to make an oral statement on aspects of intolerance and discrimination in Tibet, as well as deliver a written statement outlining key issues contributing to discrimination in Tibet, and possible ways to tackle the problem. You can read both here.

(Photo Caption: Little genuine autonomy and growing migration into Tibet has led to increased discrimination of Tibetans.)