Geneva — United Nations human rights experts called on the Chinese government to provide information on 11 Tibetans imprisoned for their peaceful efforts to protect the environment in Tibet. The UN experts said: "If China is committed to tackle the impacts of climate change, it should refrain from persecuting environmental human rights defenders and release all nine immediately."
Three United Nations human rights experts, Ms Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; Mr Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, Special Rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly and of association ; Mr David Boyd, Special Rapporteur on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, issued a statement on August 10, 2023 and called on the Chinese government to provide detailed information on the 11 Tibetans, including the reasons for and location of their detention and their state of health, to provide them with adequate medical care and to allow their families to visit them.
These 11 Tibetan human rights and environmental activists were detained between 2010 and 2019 and sentenced years in prison in China for peacefully protesting against illegal mining activities, hunting of endangered species and environmental destruction in many parts of Tibet by the Chinese authorities. The imprisoned environmental human rights defenders are Anya Sengdra, Dorjee Daktal, Kelsang Choklang, Dhongye, Rinchen Namdol, Tsultrim Gonpo, Jangchup Ngodup, Sogru Abhu and Namesy.
"The Chinese government must provide information about nine Tibetan environmental human rights defenders serving prison sentences of up to 11 years," UN experts said on August 10, 2023.
"The lack of information provided by Chinese authorities could be seen as a deliberate attempt to make the world forget about these human rights defenders as they spend year after year in isolation,” the UN experts said. “Their families have been kept in the dark about their fate," the UN experts added.
"There is very little information available about the circumstances of their detention, trial and sentencing, but with cases where we do have sufficient information, we know these activists were sentenced to between seven and 11 years in prison," they said.
They said," it was unclear how many of the human rights defenders had received access to legal counsel during their detention or whether any have access to medical care in prison."
"The length of sentences handed down in six of the cases – namely against Dhongye, Rinchen Namdol, Tsultrim Gonpo, Jangchup Ngodup, Sogru Abhu and Namsey – have not been made public by the Chinese government. It remains unclear where the activists are being held and in what conditions they are serving their sentences," the experts explained.
"We urge the Chinese government to provide details on why and where they are being held and their health conditions, provide them with adequate medical care and permit their families access to visit them," the UN experts said.
"Since the human rights defenders were sentenced, the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment was recognised at the international level by the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly," the statement of UN experts stated.
"If China is committed to tackle the impacts of climate change, it should refrain from persecuting environmental human rights defenders and release all nine immediately," the UN human rights experts said.
The statement stated that "UN experts have been in contact with the Government of the People's Republic of China on the issue".
Kai Mueller, Executive Director of the International Campaign for Tibet Germany welcomed the statement and said, "We welcome the Special Rapporteurs’ forceful challenge to Chinese authorities’ persecution of environmental defenders. China must reverse its dismal record and prove its claimed prioritization of environmental protection is more than a global smoke screen for unfettered exploitation of the Tibetan Plateau. It must prove that by releasing these nine activists and ending its broad persecution of Tibetan environmental defenders."
"The international community should raise these cases of persecution during the upcoming Universal Periodic Review of China at the United Nations Human Rights Council early next year," Mueller added.
