Impoverishing Tibetans
1.
SITA, "President Jiang with NPC deputies from
Tibet", China's Tibet, Vol. 9, No. 3, 1998,
p. 2. See also, "1999: A Golden Year", China's
Tibet, Vol.10, No. 1, 1999.
2.
The TAR Economy Coordination Committee, A Guide to Investment
in Tibet, 1999.
3.
This shall be further clarified when we examine what the
term has come to mean post the Declaration of the Right
to Development, 1986. While it is admittedly difficult to
define "development", keeping in mind the various
discourses that constitute the subject under enquiry,
for the purposes of this paper the term development
shall be understood from a peoples-centric as opposed to
state-centric definition.
4.
Ann Kent, China, The United Nations, and Human Rights:
The Limits of Compliance, University of Pennsylvania Press,
Philadelphia, 1999, p. 22.
5.
Kent, China, The United Nations, and Human Rights, pp. 24-25.
6.
Declaration on the Right to Development, General Assembly Res.
41/128 (1986).
7.
United Nations Development Programme, Integrating Human Rights
with Sustainable Human Development: A UNDP Policy Document, January
1998, available at
http://www.magnet.undp.org/
8.
Statement by Mary Robinson, United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights, "Human
Development and Human Rights: Report on the Oslo
Symposium", 2-3 October 1998, available at
http://www.unhchr.ch/
9.
United Nations Development Programme, Integrating Human Rights
with Sustainable Human Development.
10.
Declaration on the Right to Development, General Assembly Res.
41/128 (1986).
11.
Michele L. Adin, "The Right to Development as a
Mechanism for Group Cultural Autonomy: Protection of
Tibetan Cultural Rights", 68 Wash. L. Rev. 695.
12.
Declaration on the Right to Development, Article 8 (2).
13.
Ibid, Article 8.
14.
Ibid, Articles 6, 9(1).
15.
Human Rights Watch, World Report 2000, available at
http://www.hrw.org/
16.
Ibid
17.
See further Robert Weatherly, "Challenging State
Orthodoxy: New Academic Thinking on Human Rights",
China Rights Forum Winter 1999-2000, pp. 28-33.
18.
Yash Ghai, "Human Rights and Governance: The Asia
Debate" 15 Austral. Y. Bk. Int. L. 1 (1994), p. 5,
in Steiner and Alston, International Human Rights in
Context: Law, Politics, Morals, Clarendon Press, Oxford,
1996, p. 236.
19.
"50 Years of Progress in China's Human Rights", released
by Xinhua, Beijing, in English 0632 gmt 17 February 2000.
20.
Jack Donnelly, Universal Human Rights in Theory
and Practice (1989), p. 118, in Steiner and Alston,
International Human Rights in Context: Law, Politics,
Morals, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1996, p. 239.
21.
Sen writes: "To see Asian history in terms of a narrow
category of authoritarian values does little justice
to the rich varieties of thought in Asian intellectual
traditions. Dubious history does nothing to vindicate
dubious politics." Amartya Sen, Development As Freedom,
Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1999, p. 248.
22.
Sen, Development As Freedom, p. 298.
23.
Ibid, p. 3.
24.
Ibid, p. 10.
25.
Ibid, p. 3.
26.
"50 Years of Progress in China's Human Rights", released
by Xinhua, Beijing, in English 0632 gmt 17 February 2000.
27.
See for example, Information Office of the State Council
Of the People's Republic of China, "New Progress in Human
Rights in the Tibet Autonomous Region", Beijing, February
1998, pp. 2, 13, 16.
28.
See generally the rhetoric in "50 Years of Progress in
China's Human Rights", released by Xinhua, Beijing, in
English 0632 gmt 17 February 2000.
29.
Information Office of the State Council, "Human Rights in
China", Beijing, 1991.
30.
Kent, China, the United Nations, and Human Rights, p. 157.
31.
"Market Economy Transforms Tibet, Beijing Gets Little
Credit", China News Digest, 7 June 1999.
32.
"NPC Tibet Deputies", Xinhua, 7 March 2000.
33.
See further Ann Forbes and Carole McGranahan, Developing
Tibet? A Survey of International Development Projects,
Cultural Survival and The International Campaign for Tibet,
May 1992, pp. 108-110.
18.
"Tibet Can't Follow Beaten Track in Large-Scale Western
Development", People's Daily, 27 March 2000.
35.
Tsewang Phuntso, "China's Development Policy in Tibet Since
Early 1950s", unpublished, copy held with TCHRD, p. 4.
36.
Text of Report by Chinese regional newspaper from Tibet,
Xizang Ribao, "Report on Implementation of the Xizang
[Tibet] Autonomous Region's 1996 Budget and on its 1997
Draft Budget" by Yang Xiaodu, director of the regional
finance department, at the fifth session of the sixth
regional people's congress on 15 May 1997; source Xizang
Ribao, Lhasa, in Chinese, 2 June 1997, p. 3.
37.
"Report on Implementation of the Xizang [Tibet] Autonomous
Region's 1996 Budget and on its 1997 Draft Budget".
38.
Text of "Report on the work of the government" by
Gyalcan Norbu, chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Regional
People's government, delivered at the sixth regional
people's congress on 15 May 1997 published by the regional
newspaper from Tibet "Xizang Ribao"; source
Xizang Ribao, Lhasa, in Chinese, 29 May 1997, pp. 1, 2.
39.
"Poverty fight needs dedication", China Daily,
Xinhua, 17 January 2000.
40.
"50 Years of Progress in China's Human Rights", released by
Xinhua, Beijing, in English 0632 gmt 17 February 2000.
41.
Gabriel Lafitte, "Immiserization and Poverty in
Tibet", Seminar 6 in "Tomorrow's Tibet",
Department of Information and International Relations,
Dharamsala, 20 March 2000.
42.
Xinhua, 26 September 1999.
43.
"50 Years of Progress in China's Human Rights",
released by Xinhua, Beijing, in English 0632 gmt 17
February 2000.
44.
Gabriel Lafitte, "Immiserization and Poverty in
Tibet", Seminar 6 in "Tomorrow's Tibet",
Department of Information and International Relations,
Dharamsala, 20 March 2000.
45.
"Agricultural Conditions Improved in Qinghai",
Xinhua, Beijing, in English 0930 gmt 10 October 1999.
46.
See further Gabriel Lafitte, "Remaking the West:
China's New Mass Campaign for Development of Western
China", Seminar 5 in "Tomorrow's Tibet",
Department of Information and International Relations,
Dharamsala, 15 March 2000, p. 9.
47.
See International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), Tibet:
Human Rights and the Rule of Law, Geneva, December 1997,
p.148, note 201. Chinese statistics in recent years on
average rural income reveal that 80-90% of Tibetans live at
approximately 1000 yuan per annum while the poverty line is
at 2600 yuan. See also, Gabriel Lafitte, "Off Farm
Employment in Rural Tibet: Prospects for Strengthening
Tibetan Development", May 9
1999, p. 4.
48.
International Commission of Jurists, Tibet: Human Rights
and the Rule of Law, p. 150.
49.
International Commission of Jurists, Tibet: Human Rights
and the Rule of Law, p.156, note 218. According to the
World Bank spending is a more reliable indicator of poverty
than income especially given the very low rate of Tibetan
savings.
50.
Ibid, pp.156, 158.
51.
Ibid, pp.156, 158.
52.
Where former Tibetan provinces of Amdo and Kham have been
absorbed and incorporated into, which mixes figures for
Tibetans and Chinese.
53.
International Commission of Jurists, Tibet: Human Rights and the Rule
of Law, p. 158.
54.
Declaration on the Right to Development, Article 8(1).
55.
See further TCHRD, Tibet: Tightening of Control [Annual Report
1999 Human Rights Violation in Tibet], Dharamsala 2000, pp. 75-81.
56.
See, A.S. Al-Khsawneh and R. Hatano, "The Realization
of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: The Human
Rights Dimensions of Population Transfer, including
the Implantation of Settlers", Economic and Social
Council, SubCommision on the Prevention of Discrimination
and Protection of Minorities, E/CN.4/Sub.2/1993. (Hereafter
"The Special Rapporteur on Population Transfer").
57.
The Special Rapporteur on Population Transfer, "The
Realization of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights".
58.
Ibid, para 30.
59.
See Tibetan Youth Congress, Strangers in their Own Country:
Chinese Population Transfer in Tibet and its Impacts, 1994.
See also Tsewang Phuntso, "China's Development Policy in
Tibet Since the Early 195O's", September 1999.
60.
Speech given by Ragdi, Chairman of the Standing
Committee of the Tibetan Regional Congress on September
5, 1994 at the Seventh Plenum of the Sixth Standing
Committee Session of the TAR Communist Party and
distributed internally as "Document No. 5", quoted in
Tsewang Phuntso, "China's Development Policy in Tibet
Since the Early 195O's".
61.
International Committee of Lawyers for Tibet and
Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, The Case
Concerning Tibet: Tibet's Sovereignty and The Tibetan
People's Right to Self-Determination, Tibetan Parliamentary
and Policy Research Centre, New Delhi, December 1998,
p. 70.
62.
ICLT, The Case Concerning Tibet, p. 68.
63.
International Committee of Lawyers for Tibet, "The
Relationship Between Environmental Management and
Human Rights in Tibet", A Report Prepared for the
Special Rapporteur for the Study of Human Rights and the
Environment, July 1992, p. 11. A comprehensive study of
population transfer conducted in 1995 by the Tibet Support
Group (UK) arrived at a more conservative figure while
confirming the unreliability of Chinese official statistics
for Tibet. They estimate that the total of non-Tibetans
in ethnographic Tibet is between 5 and 5.5 million, while
noting that Chinese statistics from 1990 put the total
Tibetan population at 4.59 million. Tibet Support Group
UK, New Majority: Chinese Population Transfer into Tibet,
London 1995, esp pp. 157-159.
64.
See for example, Conference of International Lawyers on
Issues relating to Self-Determination and Independence for
Tibet, Tibet: The Position in International Law, Edition
Hansjörg Mayer and Serindia Publications, London, 1994,
pp.29-30.
65.
Conference of International Lawyers, Tibet: The Position
in International Law, pp. 72-73.
66.
See International Commission of Jurists, Tibet: Human
Rights and the Rule of Law, p.117.
67.
"50 Years of Progress in China's Human Rights", released
by Xinhua, Beijing, in English 0632 gmt 17 February 2000.
See especially the first section entitled "A historical
turning point in the progress of human rights in China"
which claims among other changes that "the old wage system
was adjusted, a labour insurance system was introduced,
and workplace welfare and employees' living standards were
improved."
68.
Department of Information and International Relations,
Central Tibetan Administration, Tibet: Environment and
Development Issues, Dharamsala, 1992, p.35 (citing HRA
1991).
69.
TIN and Human Rights Watch/Asia, Cutting off the Serpent's
Head: Tightening Control in Tibet, 1994-1995, p. 108
(1996).
70.
Convention Concerning Forced or Compulsory Labour
(ILO No. 29), 39 U.N.T.S. 55 entered into force
1 May 1932.
71.
Steiner and Alston, International Human Rights in Context, p. 120.
72.
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
Adopted and opened for signature, ratification and
accession by General Assembly resolution 2200A (XXI) of
December 16, 1966, signed by China on October 5,
1998. As of June 1997, the ICCPR has been ratified
by 138 countries.
73.
[1963] Y.B. Eur. Conv. On Human Rights 278.
74.
Lillich, "Part II: The Global Protection of Human
Rights" in Carey, U.N. Protection of Civil and
Political Rights, p. 125 (1970), and Castberg, The European
Convention on Human Rights, p. 92 (1974).
75.
Lillich, "Part II: The Global Protection of Human
Rights", note 20, and Fawcet, The Application of the
European Convention on Human Rights, p. 56 (1969).
76.
Constitution of the People's Republic of China (Adopted at
the Fifth Session of the Fifth National People's Congress
and promulgated for implementation by the Proclamation
of the National People's Congress on December 4, 1982),
Article 42.
77.
Constitution of the People's Republic of China, Article 42.
78.
"Jobs Needed in Rural Areas", China Daily,
20 February 2000.
79.
The PRC justified the forceful expropriation of land when it wrote
Article 10 of their 1993 constitution.
80.
The Finlay case, 39 B.F.S.P. 410.
1 .
See for example Aminoil Arbitration, 21 ILM 1033, and Sornarajah,
The International Law on Foreign Investment (1994).
82.
See for example, the U.S. Constitution, 5th Amendment;
European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights
and Fundamental Freedoms, Art. 4(2), 213 UNTS 221,
signed November 4, 1950, entered into force
September 3, 1953 (and Holy Monasteries v. Greece,
20 E.H.R.R. (1984)); American Convention on Human Rights,
Art. 21(2), 91 ILM 673 (1970) signed November 22,
1969, entered into force July 18, 1978; African
Charter on Human and People's Rights, Art. 14, 21 ILM 58
(1982), signed June 27, 1981, entered into
force October 21, 1986; and the Cairo Declaration
on Human Rights in Islam, Art. 15, signed by the
Organization of the Islamic Conference on August 5,
1990.
83.
See further TIN, News Review: Reports from Tibet 1998,
London 1999, pp. 92-4.
84.
Gabriel Lafitte, "Off Farm Employment in Rural Tibet:
Prospects for Strengthening Tibetan Development",
9 May 1999, pp. 7-8.
85.
See Tsewang Phuntso, "China's Development Policy in
Tibet Since the Early 195O's".
86.
8 yuan = US$ 1.
87.
Yartsa gunbu is a kind of medicinal plant (botanical
name: cordyceps sinensis).
88.
1 Gyama = 500g.
89.
Ra-khul = goat's fur.
90.
Nor-khul = yak and dri's fur.
91.
Suk trel = animal tax.
92.
92 Dru = barley.
93.
93 Paikhang = mustard oil.
94.
Nyungma = turnip.
95.
Lobso tax = education tax
96.
Rim-ghok tax = regulatory health tax or preventative health tax.
97.
See for example Information Office of the State Council
Of the People's Republic of China, "New Progress in Human
Rights in the Tibet Autonomous Region", p. 7.
98.
Lafitte, "Off Farm Employment in Rural Tibet". ICLT,
The Case Concerning Tibet, p. 70.
99.
Lafitte, "Off Farm Employment in Rural Tibet", p. 19.
100.
TIN, News Review: Reports from Tibet 1998, pp. 60, 92, 94;
Lafitte, "Off Farm Employment in Rural Tibet", pp. 4-5.
101.
Lafitte, "Off Farm Employment in Rural Tibet", p. 5.
102.
"Tibet Grain Harvest Increases 7.9 per cent", Xinhua,
Beijing, in English 0756 gmt 7 January 2000.
103.
TIN News Update, 21 June 1999, p. 1.
104.
104 Ibid
105.
Ibid, p. 2.
106.
Gabriel Lafitte in TIN News Update, 21 June 1999, p. 4.
107.
See for example, "Tibet Grain Harvest Increases 7.9 per
cent", Xinhua, Beijing in English 0756 gmt 7 January 2000.
108.
Phuntso, "China's Development Policy in Tibet Since the
Early 195O's", pp. 15-16.
109.
Ibid, p. 8.
110.
Ann Forbes and Carole McGranahan, "Developing Tibet? A
Survey of International Development Projects", Cultural
Survival and The International Campaign for Tibet, May
1992, p. 121.
111.
Information Office of the State Council Of the People's
Republic of China, "New Progress in Human Rights in the
Tibet Autonomous Region", p. 15.
112.
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General
Comment No.4 (1991), UN Doc. E/1992/23, Annex III.
113.
Information Office of the State Council of the People's
Republic of China, "New Progress in Human Rights in the
Tibet Autonomous Region", p. 11.
114.
Scott Leckie, Destruction by Design: Housing Rights
Violations in Tibet, Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions
(COHRE), The Netherlands, February 1994, pp. 71, 80.
115.
Leckie, Destruction by Design, p. 89.
116.
Ibid
117.
Ibid, p. 132.
118.
See further TIN Housing Supplement, Reconstruction in the
Old City of Lhasa, 9 November 1990.
119.
Leckie, Destruction by Design, p. 183.
120.
Hu Yaobang's (Secretary-General of the CCP at the time)
Speech to the Meeting of Cadres in the TAR, 29 May 1980,
extracted and translated in TIN News Update, 12 April
1999.
121.
Sen, Development as Freedom, p. 24.
122.
Statement by Mary Robinson, United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights, Workshop on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights and the Right to Development in the
Asia-Pacific Region, Sana'a, 5-7 February 2000, available at
http://www.unhchr.ch/
See further UNDP, Integrating Human Rights with Sustainable
Development.
123.
See further Human Rights Update, Volume V, Number 2, February
2000, p. 6.
124.
Steamed dumpling.
125.
Yongnian Zheng, Discovering Chinese Nationalism in China:
Modernization, Identity, and International Relations,
Cambridge University Press, 1999, p. 32.
126.
Gabriel Lafitte, "Biosphere Tibet", Seminar 7
in "Tomorrow's Tibet", Department of Information
and International Relations, Dharamsala, 23 March 2000.
127.
Gabriel Lafitte, "Remaking the West: China's New
Mass Campaign for Development of Western China",
Seminar 5 in "Tomorrow's Tibet", Department
of Information and International Relations, Dharamsala,
15 March 2000, p. 11.
128.
Forbes and McGranahan, Developing Tibet?, p. 111.
129.
"Nation to Develop More Cities", China Daily,
18 October 1999.
130.
"Towns to Expand to Absorb Rural Population",
China Daily, 19 September 1999.
131.
"Person of the Week", China Daily, 19 September 1999.
132.
"Lenders Told to Help", South China Morning Post,
3 March 2000.
133.
"China to Develop Energy Sources in Western
Region", Wen Wei Po (Hong Kong newspaper), 17
February 2000.
134.
Forbes and McGranahan, Developing Tibet?, p. 132.
135.
Gabriel Lafitte, "AES Dams The Yellow River",
Milarepa Foundation, January 2000, p. 4.
136.
Lafitte, "AES Dams The Yellow River", p. 5.
137.
Oil and Gas Journal, 29 July 1991.
138.
"Natural Gas Eastward Transmission Project
Started", China Chemical Reporter-CBNB, 9 July 1999.
139.
The Australian Agency for International Development,
Qinghai Community Development Project: Project
Implementation Document, pp. 12-19 (May 1995). This
report is discussed in International Commission of
Jurists, Tibet: Human Rights and the Rule of Law, p. 149.
A report by the Tibetan Government in Exile,
"Guidelines for International Development Agencies and
Investors in Tibet", which offers suggestions to foreign
investors on how to minimise waste and maximise aid in
Tibet, is about to be published. The report may be obtained
from the Department of Information and International
Relations, Central Tibetan Administration, Dharamsala,
HP, 176215, India.
140.
TIN, News Review: Reports from Tibet 1998, p. 58.
141.
Ibid, p. 89.
142.
International Commission of Jurists, Tibet: Human Rights
and the Rule of Law, p. 159.
143.
Ibid, p. 161.
144.
TIN, News Review: Reports from Tibet 1998, p. 74.
145.
See further 1999 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices,
"China", released by Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights,
and Labour, US Department of State, 25 February 2000,
available at www.state.gov.
146.
See Ladin, "The Right to Development as a Mechanism for
Group Cultural Autonomy".
147.
Lobsang Sangay, "China in Tibet: Forty Years of Liberation
or Occupation?", p. 28.
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