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What is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
What Does the Universal Declaration Say About the Situation in Tibet?
What You Can Do On Human Rights Day - 10 December 2008
EMAIL: Australia’s Ambassador to the United Nations
DOWNLOAD: ATC’s UDHR 60th Anniversary Poster
What is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
Adopted by the UN’s General Assembly on 10 December 1948, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is the foundation of international human rights law, the first universal statement on the basic principles of inalienable human rights, and a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations.
Did you know? The Guinness Book of Records describes the UDHR as the “Most Translated Document” in the world. Its 30 articles have been elaborated in international treaties, regional human rights instruments, national constitutions and laws.
10 December is also International Human Rights Day and the day on which the Norwegian Nobel Committee confers its prestigious Nobel Peace Prize. 10 December 2009 will be the 20th Anniversary of His Holiness the Dalai Lama being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Read the full text of the UDHR at www.un.org
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What Does The UDHR Say About The Situation In Tibet?
Since 1948 and the adoption of the UDHR, extraordinary advances in human rights protection have been made in many countries of the world. Tragically, in the case of Tibet leading human rights monitors including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented a marked deterioration in the human rights situation over the past year.
Today the Chinese Government continues to violate the basic human rights of Tibetans, rights enshrined both in the UDHR and China’s own constitution. Here are some examples:
Article 3: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
 Since March 2008 over 200 Tibetans have been killed following peaceful protests across Tibetan areas. In mid November two Australian journalists were among the first foreign reporters to visit Tibet after the March uprising. They told of snipers poised on rooftops in Lhasa and hundreds of armed troops patrolling the streets day and night. Tibetans continue to live under a climate of fear and intimidation yet many are risking their lives to speak out about the enduring repression in their homeland. Image: One of the over 200 Tibetans killed since March 2008
Article 5: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment.
 On 29 September 2008 the Central Tibetan Administration’s Department of Information and International Relations submitted a report to the United Nations Committee Against Torture on ?The Continuing Use of Torture Against the Tibetan People?. The report concluded that the Chinese Government continues to engage in widespread and systematic torture in Tibet and had failed to make genuine progress in several areas of concern previously noted by the UN’s Committee Against Torture.
Image: Tibetan monk and former political prisoner Palden Gyatso sits with some of the Chinese implements of torture smuggled out of Tibet
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 Article 9: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or torture.
The International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) has identified more than 900 people detained since protests began across the Tibetan plateau on 10 March 2008. ICT has been unable to confirm many hundreds of further names due to the Chinese Government’s efforts to block information flow. Among those released, many have told of extremely brutal treatment while in detention. Many others, like Tibetan filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen (pictured left), remain unaccounted for since their arrest.
Article 14(1): Everyone has the right to seek and enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
 On 30 September 2007 Chinese border patrols opened fire on Tibetan refugees fleeing for Nepal via the Nangpa Pass. Kelsang Namtso, a 17 year old nun was killed just before the pass as border security soldiers shot without warning at the group of 75, including many young children and two guides. Only 43 reached the Tibetan Refugee Transit Centre in Kathmandu, with many of those captured detained for several months before being released to their families.
Image: The body of Kelsang Namtso lies in the snow as children are arrested at a nearby climbing camp. Western climbers witnessed the shooting
Article 18: Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
 This right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
In April, responding to the March uprising, Chinese authorities began implementing an intensified ?patriotic eduction? campaign, requiring pledges of allegiance to the Chinese government and the denunciation of the Dalai Lama. Whereas previous such campaigns had targeted only monks and nuns, new efforts target Tibetans from all walks of life ? students, government employees, security forces, farmers, nomads etc. Tibet is presently undergoing the most intense and systematic attack on its religion and culture in decades.
Image: Courageous monks from the Jokhang Temple, one of Tibet’s most sacred temples, interrupt a news briefing to tell foreign journalists about the lack of freedoms in Tibet
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