(TibetanReview.net, Sep07’24) – Over a dozen independent human rights experts and a working group with the United Nations have revealed Sep 6 that they had made a joint representation to the government of China in July this year, expressing “deep concern” over its plans to build the Kamtok (Chinese: Gangtuo) dam in the Tibetan region of Dege which is currently part of the PRC’s Sichuan Province.
A total of 13 Special Rapporteurs and a working group, each on different aspects of universally recognized human rights, have said they had issued a communication to the Chinese government on Jul 8, expressing deep concern on the widespread “violations and human rights abuse of the Tibetan communities, leaders, and religious figures living in the surrounding areas.”
They have taken note of the fact that Chinese authorities had “failed to hold meaningful consultations and obtain free, prior and informed consent of the people whose lives are directly and irreversibly impacted by the dam construction” which amounted to “arbitrary displacement.”
The experts have also expressed concern over the “reprisals, use of force, arbitrary arrests and detentions – for some incommunicado – of hundreds of Tibetans” for exercising their basic human rights.
They have also expressed serious concern on the dam’s damage to the environment, underscoring the “dire and irreversible environmental and climate impacts that the dams could cause in the Tibetan plateau, to China and the region”.
And they have called for “an independent, adequate and comprehensive environmental and human rights impact assessment before any construction and development of the project, including assessing other potential alternatives for the energy needs.”
The experts have warned that the actions of the Chinese government were in violation of Tibetans’ basic human rights like cultural rights including right of everyone to enjoy one’s own culture and to take part in cultural life; right to freedom of opinion and expression, right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association; right to information and to participate meaningfully in public affairs, etc.
The Kamtok dam will submerge at least six monasteries and two villages and displace hundreds of residents. The UN rights experts have emphasized their distress over the irreversible destruction of religious and cultural heritage sites, as well as Tibetan ways of life.
The joint communication bears the signatures of Alexandra Xanthaki, Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights; Ganna Yudkivska, Vice-Chair on Communications of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention; Robert McCorquodale, Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises; Elisa Morgera, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change; Surya Deva, Special Rapporteur on the right to development; Astrid Puentes Riaño, Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment; Irene Khan, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression; Gina Romero, Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association; Balakrishnan Rajagopal, Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context; José Francisco Cali Tzay, Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples; Paula Gaviria, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons; Nicolas Levrat, Special Rapporteur on minority issues; Nazila Ghanea, Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief.