Publications

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Annual Report 2001

Chapter 1: ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS

On 27 March 2001¹ China ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), three and a half years after becoming a signatory.² Acceding to the Covenant obliges the People's Republic of China (PRC) to bring their domestic legislation into line with the articles of the convention, and also requires the PRC to report to the United Nations on their adherence to the Covenant.³ The government stated that ratification

fully demonstrates the Chinese Government's positive attitude toward carrying out international cooperation in human rights as well as China's firm determination and confidence in promoting and protecting human rights.⁴

The first article of the ICESCR (and the ICCPR) declares

All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.

It has been argued in many international forums that this article gives Tibetan people a right to independence from China; or at the very least, genuine autonomy.⁵ In 2001, however, China moved even further away from granting Tibetan people this right.

Despite claiming to fully respect human rights, in 2001 China continued to maintain a distinction between economic rights and civil/political rights and argued that China should be permitted to choose its own way of protecting human rights.⁶ In China's case, its method of protecting human rights is to prioritise economic development over human rights such as political and civil freedoms: the PRC argues that its citizens are more interested in economic security than with personal freedoms. For this reason, when ratifying the ICESCR China made a reservation in respect to Article 8(1)(a). This article ensures "The right of everyone to form trade unions … for the promotion of his economic and social interests…No restrictions may be placed on the exercise of this right other than those prescribed by law and which are necessary.” The PRC stated that this right “…would be in line with relevant provisions of China’s Constitution, Trade Union Law and Labour Law”⁷ , laws which forbid the organising of independent trade unions.⁸ The International Labour Organisation, of which China is a member, continues to call on China to allow freedom of association and permit workers to form independent trade unions, but at the end of 2001 China still refused to do so.⁹

All rights contained in the ICESCR must be read alongside the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) which China ratified in 1981. The Convention defines discrimination as

any distinction, exclusion, or preference made on the basis of race, colour, sex or religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.¹⁰

In 2001 TCHRD presented a statement to the World Conference against Racism to the effect that China practiced institutionalised and cultural discrimination against the Tibetan people through its continued occupation of Tibet; the continuing population transfer of Chinese settlers; coerced birth control against Tibetan women; discrimination in education, health and employment; the exploitation of Tibet’s natural resources for the benefit of China; and the attempt to destroy Tibet’s culture in order to control Tibetans politically.¹¹

The following chapters examine China’s treatment of Tibetans in relation to some of the major rights contained in the ICESCR – the right to livelihood, the right to housing, the right to health, and the right to education. These chapters show that in 2001 Tibetan people had these fundamental rights denied. They reveal that the PRC’s agenda for Tibet is not to grant the Tibetan people their fundamental human rights, but to assimilate Tibet into China so that the Beijing government may exploit the land and its people for its own benefit.