(TibetanReview.net, Feb05’26) – As China’s policy to Sinicize Tibet continues to run amok, with focus especially on secular as well as religious educational institutions and curricula, a UN human rights expert has warned that its policies there are actively eroding the foundations of Tibetan civilisation, threatening the very survival of Tibetans as a distinct people.
Presenting his report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Nicolas Levrat, has called Tibet a case where state-led policies are not merely discriminatory but constitute “eradication in more subtle ways”.
The report states, “the boarding school education system implemented by China in Tibet is aimed at erasing the Tibetan language and identity,” with Tibetan children being separated from their families and communities and educated in environments where Mandarin Chinese, state ideology, and cultural assimilation dominate daily life.
Given this reality, the report says this policy prevents “the intergenerational transmission of cultural, linguistic or religious elements of minorities’ identities,” a process that leads to “the extinction of the minority as a distinct group in the State population.”
The report notes that eradication does not require mass killing to meet the threshold of grave human rights violations. The Special Rapporteur has warned that targeting a people’s language, culture, and religion can be just as destructive as physical violence. Such practices violate article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees minorities the right to enjoy their culture, practice their religion, and use their language in community with others.
These policies are not found to be isolated, but part of a broader political project. China has “since 2012 undertaken a nation-building process” that has resulted in “the marginalisation of minority communities,” leading to “forms of severe discrimination against non-Han minorities, such as Tibetans.” Despite constitutional guarantees of regional autonomy, the report finds that in practice Tibetan identity is being subordinated to a single state-defined national identity.
The Special Rapporteur has found that religious life, a cornerstone of Tibetan civilisation, is also under systematic pressure, noting “all religious groups are required to register through State-controlled ‘patriotic’ religious associations,” and that communities refusing to comply are “denied legal status, criminalised and subjected to surveillance and the closure of places of worship.” This framework is stated to place monasteries, religious education, and spiritual authority under direct state control.
The report has also highlighted restrictions on ethnic and cultural organisations, noting that limits on minority associations undermine the ability of Tibetans to organise collectively and protect their culture. Such restrictions directly interfere with the right of minorities to exercise their identity “in community with the other members of their group.”
Then, in a damning indictment of China for these policies, the Special Rapporteur has said that what is taking place in Tibet is not merely social change or development policy, but a sustained assault on the foundations of a civilisation — its language, its spiritual institutions, its cultural memory, and its transmission to future generations.
He has warned that unless these policies are reversed, the damage to Tibetan civilisation may become irreversible.
(Source: tibet.net, Feb 5, 2026)