-Filed by Tibet Bureau, Geneva
Geneva: The just concluded 11th UN Forum on Minority focused on “Statelessness as a Minority Issue” as the main theme.
UN advocacy officer, Kalden Tsomo, took the floor to call on China to “respect its obligation not to create stateless Tibetans.”
“60 years ago, thousands of Tibetans were forced to leave Tibet and escape to Nepal and India. While India has made progress in the treatment of stateless Tibetans in India, stateless Tibetans in Nepal live in a limbo,” Tsomo said at the Forum attended by H.E Mr. Vojislav Suc, President of the Human Rights Council and Dr. Fernand de Varennes, Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues.
The large numbers of stateless Tibetans in Nepal, including those born there and who have lived in the country for decades, are not provided with identity documents. They are constantly subject to fines, detention, and deportation.
Statelessness being a human rights issue, she urged the Nepalese government to give Tibetans access to documentation needed for entitlement to nationality without discrimination.
Tsomo also called on China to enter into a genuine dialogue with the envoys of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to solve the issue of Tibet.
The Chinese delegation responded that these are “unwanted remarks and accusations by some speakers on Tibet. We are firmly against those remarks. They disregard the stability and great progress in human rights achievements in Tibet.”
“[The speakers on Tibet] have ulterior motives for political reasons. Their purpose is to separate China…and splitting the sovereign country,” the Chinese delegated further added.
As of 2017, more than 75% of the world’s known stateless populations belong to minorities according to UNHCR.
The UNHCR’s “IBelong” campaign, which was launched in 2014, aims to end statelessness in the world by 2024.