The International Campaign for Tibet strongly supports the candidature of Mrs. Tsering Woeser, a Tibetan activist and writer, as a candidate for the 2013 edition of the Sakharov Prize.<\/p>\n
Tsering Woeser represents one of the rare, accessible dissenting voices on Tibet within People\u2019s Republic of China. She is a poet, blogger, dissident writer and cultural historian based in Beijing who provides a unique window into the complex realities of Tibet.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Woeser and her husband, Wang Lixiong, a renowned Chinese writer and scholar who frequently writes about Tibet, were both put under house arrest in Beijing after speaking to reporters during the Tibetan unrest of 2008 and again in June this year in order to block any contact with foreign journalists invited to visit Tibet in early July.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Woeser is very close to many well-known Chinese dissidents and is one of the few Tibetan authors to write in Chinese. She was among the first of the original 303 signatories to Charter 08 by Liu Xiaobo, Nobel Peace Prize in 2010.<\/p>\n
Awarding this prestigious prize for the first time to a Tibetan author and activist in the year of the Chinese once-in-a-decade leadership change would send a strong signal of the European Parliament\u2019s stance on and respect for the rights of minorities and cultural diversity. This would also be reinforced by the fact that 2013 marks the 25th anniversary of the Sakharov Prize.<\/p>\n