A new webinar from ICLC in partnership with the Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities
Wednesday, April 26, 2023 at 12:00 pm Eastern Time
In 1959 the International Commission of Jurists published its report “The Question of Tibet and the Rule of Law” documenting serious human rights violations and the policy of the People’s Republic of China in Tibet. In this groundbreaking report, the ICJ noted that the killing of Tibetans and forcible removal of Tibetan children — in addition to the destruction of the Tibetan religion and the nation itself — constituted violations of the 1948 Convention on Genocide.
Unfortunately, despite seminal reports and commentary by Tibetan people and international lawyers throughout the decades, the Tibetan communities of 2023 face significant challenges in protecting their culture and identity as a result of policies imposed upon them by the leaders of the People’s Republic of China. This webinar will provide updates on the current situation involving human rights in Tibet and the rule of law. The speakers will focus on different areas and discuss, among other things, whether the International Commission of Jurists’ findings in 1959 remain pertinent and true today.
SPEAKERS:
Ms Tenzin Dechen is a registered lawyer under Bar Council of India and Tibetan Law and Custom Counsellor under Tibetan Supreme Justice Commission. She did her B.Com (Honors) from Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC ), University of Delhi and then she pursued LLB from Campus Law Centre, Faculty of Law, University of Delhi. After graduation, Ms. Tenzin Dechen joined Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) as a Junior Advocate and during her three-year tenure at HRLN, she worked on various initiatives of HRLN including cases of Women’s rights, Children’s rights, Prisoners rights, Housing rights, Reproductive rights and Health rights in the Supreme Court of India, High Court of Delhi , District Courts of Delhi and Juvenile Justice Board. During her tenure at the Human Rights Law Network, the “Legal Aid for Tibetan” initiative was formed. After her appointment as the General Secretary in 2019, Tenzin Dechen is currently serving as Senior Legal Counsel and President of the Tibetan Legal Association.
Dr. Gyal Lo received his PhD from the University of Toronto, and he taught at the Department of Tibetan Language and Culture at Northwest University for Nationalities for over a decade. He is the author of Social Structuration in Tibetan Society: Education, society, and spirituality (Lexington Books, 2016). Born in Amdo, Tibet, or what China calls Gansu Province, Dr. Gyal Lo attended school in his home region and then did a Master’s Degree in Tibetan Language and Culture Department at Northwest University for Nationalities in Lanzhou, China. In 1995, he was appointed Assistant Professor in the same department, where he taught for the next decade and undertook extensive research into Tibetan education. After leaving to obtain a PhD in Educational Sociology at the University of Toronto, he returned to China but was refused employment at his former department due to political sensitivities over his time studying in the West. He was then appointed a full professor at the Yunnan Normal University Institute for Studies in Education from 2017-2020. In 2020, as the political climate changed, Dr. Gyal Lo’s 5-year contract at Yunnan Normal University was terminated on the grounds that he was a foreign Tibetan with a western background and thus a potential political liability in an increasingly authoritarian China. Dr. Gyal Lo left China on December 31, 2020 and has decided not to return because it has become too risky to make a meaningful contribution to the field of Tibetan education, and in order to alert the international community to the dire threats posed to the collective well being of the Tibetan people and society and the survival of Tibet’s language, religion, and culture.
Tenzin Dorjee is an Associate Professor at the Department of Human Communication Studies at California State University, Fullerton. His expertise is in intergroup communication and intercultural communication. He was recognized as both a Distinguished Faculty Marshall of the College of Communications and a Distinguished Faculty Member of his department in the spring of 2017. In December of 2016, at the nomination by the Honorable Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the U.S. House of Representatives appointed Dr. Dorjee to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and in the second term, commissioners unanimously elected him as Chair of the USCIRF. He has over four decades of translation experience including translations for His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Dorjee also received numerous recognitions and awards for his outstanding teaching, research and scholarly creativity, and community service on and off campus. He co-authored with Stella Ting-Toomey (2019) Communicating Across Cultures (Second Edition) published by the Guilford Press, New York, U.S.A.
All are welcome to attend this free webinar. Register here:
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_1TUtrH-dQW2kKbE-R51dFg