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![]() ![]() The rights of the child Amnesty International in its May 1995 report on human rights violations in Tibet recorded 45 Tibetan juvenile political detainees in December 1994. In 1996 a number of Tibetan political prisoners under the age of 18 languished in various Chinese prisons in Tibet. Over 280 student monks under the age of 16 were expelled from their monasteries. Gelek Jinpa, aged 14 and Dorje, aged 17 both from Ganden Monastery were each shot in the leg by Chinese troops in May 1996. The safety and whereabouts of the 7 year-old Gendhun Choekyi Nyima, who has been kept under house arrest by Chinese authorities since late May 1995 remain unknown. 9.1. International Law The rights of Tibetan children are being persistently violated by the Chinese authorities in total disregard of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (hereinafter CRC) to which the People's Republic of China is a State Party. Article 37 (b) of the Convention states:
However Tibetan children have been arrested for exercising their freedom of expression and participating in peaceful demonstrations. They have been locked up in adult prisons for months without trial and treated as per adult prisoners, in contravention of Article 37 (c) of the CRC which states:
9.2. Juvenile Prisoners of Conscience77 In May 1995 China added yet another child to their list of juvenile prisoners of conscience - Gedhun Choekyi Nyima who turned seven on April 25, 1996. He is probably the world's youngest political prisoner. On 28 May 1996 China's Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Wu Jianmin, in response to a formal question put by the UN Committee for the Rights of the Child said, "He has been put under the protection of the government at the request of his parents". However there has been no response from China to a request by the Committee to visit the family and provide reassurance. In spite of China's admission that Gendhun Chokyi Nyima is in their custody, it has been over a year and a half since the child's disappearance and his whereabouts remain unknown. Gelek Jinpa (layname-Tenzin Dawa), 14 years, Gyatso Rinchen (Lobsang Choegyal), 14 years, Phuntsok Rabjor (Tsering Thubten), 15 years and Dorje, 17 years, were arrested between May 6 to 10, 1996 during a protest by Ganden Monastery monks against the Chinese "Work Team" in residence in Ganden Monastery. Two of the child monks, Gelek Jinpa and Dorje, were shot in the leg by the Chinese police and were reportedly beaten before being taken to prison. 9.3. Detention without Trial Article 37 (d) of the CRC states:
In contravention of this article, Tibetan children detained in prisons have been denied their rights to challenge the legality of their detention before an appropriate independent and impartial authority. Under the Chinese legal system, the presumption of innocence until proven guilty is not applied. In the majority of cases reported, children detained without trial are simply issued with an administrative detention order and usually sent to labour camps to serve their term. Gyaltsen Pelsang, a 16 yea-old nun from Garu Nunnery, was 13 at the time of her arrest for her participation in a peaceful demonstration. She spent one year and eight months from April 25, 1993 to December 19, 1994, in Gutsa Detention Centre without trial. Lobsang Gyatso, a 17 year-old monk from Chamdo Monastery was arrested in February 1995 and has been detained since then without any formal trial. He is reportedly still detained in Silthang Prison. 25 students of the "Nga-rig Kye-tsel-Ling" school (Flourishing Garden of Five Knowledges) in Kumbum, Amdo region of Tibet, were arrested and detained for six weeks between mid March to May 1996. Juveniles released from prison are black-listed and put under strict surveillance. After their release from prison, these children are refused re-admission into their schools. Tibetan children are thereby being denied opportunities which have a profound effect on their adult lives. 9.4. Torture and Ill-Treatment of Juvenile Detainees Despite having ratified the Convention against Torture (CAT), China continues to torture prisoners of conscience in Tibet and Tibetan juvenile prisoners are not exempted from this ill-treatment in prisons. Young prisoners and adults alike are subjected to beatings, electric shocks, solitary confinement and deprivation of sleep, food or drink as punishment. Gelek Jinpa, a 14 year-old monk of Ganden Monastery, was beaten six times by police during his interrogation, following the crackdown on Ganden Monastery in May 1996. This incident of police brutality against a minor occurred even before he was taken to prison. Gelek Jinpa was detained in Gutsa Prison for nearly 4 months without trial after which he was expelled from his monastery. Gyaltsen Pelsang who escaped into exile and arrived in India on December 18, 1996, walks with a prominent limp. She is living proof of Chinese atrocities against juvenile prisoners. While in Gutsa Detention Centre, Gyaltsen Pelsang, then 13 years old, was made to stand for hours on a cold floor. This, in combination with the beatings she endured during her interrogation, has caused a permanent limp in the right leg of this 16 year-old nun. At the time of her arrest, Sherab Ngawang was only 12 years old. Sherab Ngawang was a novice nun of Michungri Nunnery, on the outskirts of Lhasa, when she participated in a demonstration in 1992 with four other nuns. In spite of her age, she was sentenced to three years of administrative detention as a prisoner of conscience. She was repeatedly tortured and ill-treated whilst in detention at Trisam Re-education Through Labour Camp. Sherab Ngawang was released in February 1995 after completing her term of detention, but died three months later in a police hospital in Lhasa. Sonam Tsering, a 13 year-old boy from Chamdo, reached Kathmandu in August 1996. He had been detained for four months at the age of 11 for taking part in a pro-independence demonstration in 1994. He was forced to confess that he had stolen something. He was subsequently beaten for two days and put in handcuffs for a week. During his detention he was made to clean toilets and collect garbage. 9.5. Closure of Schools and Expulsion of Students The CRC requires State Parties to recognise the right of the child to education. Under Article 29 (c) of the CRC, State Parties agreed that the education of the child shall be directed to:
However, schooling in Tibet is being dominated by ideological indoctrination. In September 1994, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched a three year "patriotic education" campaign to "quash youthful visions of an independent Tibet or the return of the Dalai Lama"78. On 6 May 1996, the "Qinghai Provincial Government" closed down a 200 pupil school at Kumbum in Amdo region of Tibet after leaflets and posters calling for Tibet's independence appeared at the school. On 16 May, 1996, students of the Lhasa Middle School were summoned to a meeting where they were told that it was thereafter forbidden to possess photographs of the Dalai Lama's or to wear "sung-du", the red cord worn by all Tibetan Buddhists around the wrist or neck as protection. In November 1996 the CCP called on schools in Tibet to participate more actively in the resurrection of socialist values and to "strengthen the embodiment of the historical links between Tibet and the motherland China" through school textbooks and other publications". Waves of expulsions have taken place throughout Tibet in 1996 as part of the Chinese "Strike Hard" campaign. Of the 1295 monks known to have been expelled, at least half of them are below the age of 16. Initially Chinese authorities made a policy to expel all monks below the age of 18. However, in reaction to strong protests from the monks, they have reduced the age limit to 16 and parents were ordered to withdraw their children. With the expulsion of these child monks, a large number of the younger monks have been forced to give up their education for political reasons.
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