(TibetanReview.net, Jul01’26) – China’s falsely titled law designed to assimilate its ethnic minorities – the so-called Law on Ethic Unity (or solidarity) and Progress – continues to be strongly condemned across the free world, including at the UN Human Rights Council, as it officially came into force on Jul 1. Tibetan exiles in numerous countries staged protest rallies and other actions to condemn the law and draw global attention to it.
In the US Senate, a bipartisan resolution (S.Res. 791) was introduced on Jun 24, condemning the law and calling on Beijing to end abuses against ethnic and religious minorities, as well as campaigns of transnational repression affecting people in the United States
It was tabled by Senator Jacky Rosen, along with Senators Jeff Merkley, John Curtis, and Jim Banks, and referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The resolution notes that the new law even violates China’s own constitution, including freedom of religious belief and the right of people regarded as minorities to use their own spoken and written languages and preserve their cultural traditions.
China is expected to uphold these rights also because it is a State Party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; and a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Despite these national obligations and international commitments, the resolution says, Chinese authorities have systematically imposed policies that displace ethnic and religious minority communities, separated Tibetan children from their families through state-run boarding schools, limited the use of minority languages, curtailed religious practice through intrusive state controls, and compelled conformity with ideology mandated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The resolution continues that these policies have threatened the rights and freedoms of a broad range of communities, including Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongolians, Christians, and other ethnic and religious groups across (the People’s Republic of) China, as well as the people of Hong Kong, whose civil liberties and autonomy have been systematically eroded in recent years.
The resolution notes that CCP leader Chen Quanguo first experimented with systematic surveillance, intimidation, detention, and draconian controls on expressions of religious and cultural identity in Tibet before expanding and accelerating those repressive techniques in Xinjiang where he served as the party secretary from 2011 to 2016 and 2016-2021 respectively..
In eight operative clauses, the resolution condemns the misleadingly titled law, reaffirms support for affected communities, reiterates the Senate’s 2021 genocide determination, calls for the law’s repeal, urges coordination with allied governments to monitor its effects, and asks the US President to consider Global Magnitsky sanctions against responsible officials.
The resolution also refers to the issue of the succession of the Dalai Lama, affirming that the decision belongs solely to Tibetan Buddhist leaders and the Tibetan people, and calls on China to resume unconditional dialogue with the exile Tibetan spiritual leader or His representatives.
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Meanwhile, at a side event on Jun 24 during the 62nd Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, attended by diplomats from 17 UN member states and others, legal experts and human rights advocates have argued that the law posed a risk to the cultural identity and fundamental rights of Tibetans, Uyghurs, and other ethnic minorities, while potentially broadening Beijing’s reach of transnational repression.
Both the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and several UN Special Rapporteurs have raised alarms about the legislation’s violation of international human rights and its adverse impact on ethnic communities, pointed out Ms Thinlay Chukki, Representative at the Tibet Bureau, Geneva, at the event, which was organized by the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights,
Earlier, on Jun 15, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, was stated to have called for nothing less than the repeal of the law while addressing the council’s opening session.
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Also, lawmakers in more countries have also criticised and condemned this draconian law.
Italian parliamentarians, including the chair and vice-chair of the Italy-Tibet Parliamentary Intergroup, issued video statements condemning the law, calling it a vehicle for forced cultural assimilation that threatens the survival of Tibetan language, identity, and heritage, said a Tibet.net report Jun 30.
Among them was Senator Giulio Terzi, a former Foreign Minister of the country, who said of the law, “It is the destructive, homogenising unity of cultural assimilation imposed by the Chinese Communist Party, which conforms everything and flattens everything.”
Also, the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Tibet strongly condemned the implementation of the law, warning that the legislation institutionalises the Chinese government’s policy of forced assimilation and poses serious threats to Tibetans and other ethnic nationalities both within China and beyond its borders, said a Tibet.net report Jul 1.
And the German Federal Foreign Office has on Jun 29 expressed serious concern over the law, warning it could further undermine the rights of ethnic and religious minorities and enable transnational repression reaching individuals and organisations outside China, including in Germany and Europe, said another Tibet.net report Jul 1.