(TibetanReview.net, Feb23’23) – A cross-party group of 29 Senators have on Feb 21 launched an Inter-parliamentary Group for Tibet in the Senate of the Spanish Parliament in what has been described as a historic initiative in the country.
At its inaugural function, held in the Manuel Giménez Abad Hall of the Senate, Robert Masih Nahar, President of the group, has said the primary goals of the group would be to promote broader international recognition of the Tibetan issue especially with the aim to improve respect for human rights in Tibet; to draw attention to the unresolved issue of Tibet; to work together with other inter-parliamentary Tibet Groups in the European countries and the Tibet Intergroup in the European Parliament to support the call for the appointment of an EU Special Representative for Tibetan affairs with a mandate to promote substantive dialogue between envoys of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the People’s Republic of China.
Welcoming the launch of the group, Sikyong (executive head) Penpa Tsering of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) has invited the Senators to visit Dharamsala in in a video message for the occasion.
The group’s launch followed Senator Nahar’s participation in the 8th World Parliamentarians’ Convention on Tibet held in Washington DC last year.
Around 35 Senators and journalists attended the launch of the Inter-Parliamentary Group for Tibet, said the CTA on its Tibet.net website Feb 23.
Tibetans who attended and spoke at the event were stated to include CTA Representative Rigzin Genkhang, Venerable Thupten Wangchen and Thupten Gyatso, Members of Tibetan Parliament in Exile representing Tibetans Europe and Africa, and Ringzing Dolma, President of the Tibetan community in Spain.