In a statement delivered at the 17th UN Forum on Minority Issues in Geneva, the International Campaign for Tibet expressed its deep concern over the Chinese government\u2019s systematic erasure of the Tibetan people\u2019s identity through its education policies.
The two-day Forum, held on 28-29 November 2024, focused this year on the topic of \u201cMinority representation and self-representation in public spaces and discourses.\u201d \u201cDenying minorities a voice is the first step towards denying their wider rights,\u201d stressed UN High Commissioner Volker T\u00fcrk in his opening remarks, adding that it \u201ccreates space for ugly, false representations of minorities that perpetuates stereotypes, fuels prejudice and incite hostility.\u201d This is exactly what China is doing with its so-called \u201cminorities\u201d such as Tibetans and Uyghurs. By portraying Tibetans as backward and in need being modernized, China perpetuates harmful stereotypes that undermine Tibetan identity while fueling resentment among Tibetans, who see these narratives as demeaning and dismissive of their rich cultural heritage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking at the forum under the item on “minority representation in education”, ICT\u2019s Policy and Advocacy Officer M\u00e9lanie Blondelle detailed how schools in Tibet have increasingly been used as tool to assimilate Tibetan children \u2013 meaning molding them into the dominant Han Chinese culture. She highlighted how Tibetan children in state-run schools are primarily taught in Mandarin, with a curriculum that is culturally irrelevant and deeply misrepresentative of Tibetan history and heritage. This is exacerbated by the coercive boarding school system and the closure of private-run Tibetan schools (recently illustrated by the closure of the Taktsang Lhamo monastic school<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Education should value cultural diversity, not destroy it. Tibetan children deserve to grow up knowing who they are, where they come from, and to take pride in their heritage,” Blondelle concluded, urging China to respect its international obligations with regards to the rights of Tibetan children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Created 17 years ago, the UN Forum on Minority Issues serves as a platform to foster dialogue and cooperation on matters concerning minority groups. This year\u2019s session saw its highest attendance since its establishment, with over 690 representatives from minority communities, governments, NGOs, and UN bodies and agencies registered. While ICT rejects the term “minority” for the Tibetan people, the organisation uses the forum to advocate for the rights of the Tibetans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tibet was also in the spotlight in Geneva during an awarding ceremony of the International Contest for Minority Artists<\/a> on 26 November, where Tibetan artist Laowu Kuang was rewarded for his work deeply entrenched in the themes of memory, freedom and human rights. In his acceptance speech, he perfectly illustrated the lack of Tibetan language education in Tibet, explaining he was delivering his speech in Chinese as he could only receive Chinese education since he was a child, and that in his native village in Ngaba (Chinese: Aba) almost no Tibetan from his generation could speak in their mother tongue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read ICT\u2019s full statement below or watch on UN Web TV<\/a> (from 01:14:47).<\/p>\n\n\n\n 17th<\/sup> Session of the Forum on Minority Issues<\/strong> Mr. Chair, The International Campaign for Tibet would like to draw the Forum\u2019s attention to the systematic erasure of the Tibetan people\u2019s identity within China\u2019s education system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In recent years, education has been increasingly weaponized by the Chinese government as a tool for its assimilationist agenda in Tibet. In this context, Tibetan children in state-run schools are primarily taught in Mandarin, with a curriculum that lacks cultural relevance to them. They are presented with a distorted view of their culture and history, in which their way of life is denigrated as backward, their revered spiritual leader the Dalai Lama vilified, and their history manipulated to align with the ideology and interests of the Chinese Communist Party.[1]<\/a> This is not education, but indoctrination aimed at severing young Tibetans from their very roots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is compounded by a coercive boarding school system that separates Tibetan children as young as 4 from their families and communities, alienating them further from their culture and traditions and leading to deep psychological trauma and loss of identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the same time, private-run schools that still allowed parents to educate their children in their native language and culture have been increasingly forced to shut down. Monastic schools, once bastions of education and transmission of<\/em> Buddhist heritage, have been particularly targeted.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n These policies constitute a grave violation of Tibetan children\u2019s rights, as highlighted by multiple UN human rights treaty bodies and Special procedures. They also pose an existential threat to Tibet\u2019s ancient and rich culture – a culture of compassion and harmony that is more relevant than ever in these troubled times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Education should value cultural diversity, not destroy it. Tibetan children deserve to grow up in an environment that allows them to know who they are, and where they come from and to be proud of their heritage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We therefore urge the Chinese government to respect the rights of Tibetan children guaranteed by international law, such as the UN Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, both of which China has ratified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thank you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Footnotes<\/strong> In a statement delivered at the 17th UN Forum on Minority Issues in Geneva, the International Campaign for Tibet expressed its deep concern over the Chinese government\u2019s systematic erasure of the Tibetan people\u2019s identity through its education policies. The two-day Forum, held on 28-29 November 2024, focused this year on the topic of \u201cMinority representation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13078,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"categorie":[691,678],"news_tag":[672],"class_list":["post-13077","nieuws","type-nieuws","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","categorie-news","categorie-policy-centerunited-nations-and-tibet","news_tag-united-nations-and-tibet"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nICT statement<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
28-29 November 2024 \u2013 Geneva<\/strong>
Statement by the International Campaign for Tibet<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ladies and Gentlemen,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[1] As one former Tibetan student noted: \u201cOur teachers drove us to hate our heritage, our elders, and even our parents\u2026 We felt ashamed of our cultural background; we developed an antipathy to our socio-cultural world itself.\u201d <\/em>Huatse Gyal, 2021, \u2018Our Indigenous Land is Not a Wasteland\u2019, American Ethnologist website, 6 February 2021, https:\/\/americanethnologist.org\/features\/reflections\/our-indigenous-land-is-not-a-wasteland<\/a>.
[2] A recent example is the closure of the Taktsang Lhamo monastic school, located in Dzoge (Chinese: Ru\u00f2\u2019\u011brg\u00e0i) County in Ngaba Prefecture, Sichuan. Monastic schools in Ngaba targeted amid crackdown on Tibetan-language education, International Campaign for Tibet, 8 November 2024, https:\/\/savetibet.nl\/monastic-schools-in-ngaba-targeted-amid-crackdown-on-tibetan-language-education\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"