Perspectivas / Perspectives

Forced disappearances … physical abuse … prolonged detentions without trial of monks, nuns, and other persons.”

These are excerpts from the US State Department’s latest report on religious freedom in Tibet. The details are dire, flagrant, and shocking:

• China’s authorities have forced Tibetan Buddhists to replace images of the Dalai Lama with pictures of CCP leaders like Mao Zedong and Xi Jinping.
• Nearly one million Tibetan children have been separated from their families and sent to state-run schools where they learn “patriotic education” in an effort to cut them off from their native Tibetan culture and language.
• In a disturbing overreach, China’s authorities have systematically collected DNA from one-quarter to one-third of the Tibetan Autonomous Region’s Population.

The State Department released its 2022 Report on International Religious Freedom, chronicling a comprehensive view of freedom and belief around the world—including in Tibet. The report’s Tibet section calls out multiple human rights violations, including the unjust detention of peaceful protestors, the abduction of the Panchen Lama, the separation of children from their families into residential schools, DNA sampling, and evicting thousands of monks and nuns from Buddhist monasteries.

Geneva, May 23.– The 15th annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy was an outstanding success attended by over 700 dissidents, diplomats, journalists, and students from around the world and thousands more who followed along online.

The Summit presented its 2023 International Women's Rights Award to Shima Babaei, an exiled Iranian women's rights activist and former political prisoner, in tribute to the courageous women and girl protesters of Iran: "The victory is ours. Woman, Life, Freedom."

Leading Nicaraguan opposition politician released this year after being subjected to 611 days in prison and solitary confinement, Félix Maradiaga, received the 2023 Courage Award. He left the audience with a message of hope for Nicaragua and the global movement for freedom: "Together, let us band and banish the darkness of injustice."