A UN human rights expert has expressed concern that allegations of compulsory vocational training and labor transfer programs in China’s Tibet Autonomous Region may affect the human rights of Tibetans, similar to the situation of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
Tomoya Obokata, a Japanese man who is the UN special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, and other UN experts that the programs are being used to undermine Tibetan religious, linguistic and cultural identity, and to monitor and politically indoctrinate to the Tibetans.
In a statement from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on April 27, Obokata and the others warned that the programs could lead to forced labor.
Hundreds of thousands of Tibetans have reportedly been “transferred” from their traditional rural lives into low-skilled and low-paid jobs since 2015, according to the UN expert.
Obokata said he was awaiting translation of a response from the Chinese government, which had previously said that participation in vocational training programs is voluntary.
“But in practice, and according to the information we receive from various sources, many times they (the Tibetans) have no choice, so they have no choice but to accept it,” Obokata, a professor of international human rights law, he told Radio Free Asia on April 28.
“I am not saying that all instances are involuntary because there is no clear evidence in this regard. … But similar to the Xinjiang situation, certain indicators of forced labor may be present, so we ask the government to provide clarification and response at this stage.”
After Chinese authorities began arbitrarily detaining Uyghurs in “re-education” camps in Xinjiang in 2017, some Uyghurs were subjected to forced labor and other rights abuses. The Chinese said the camps were vocational training centers aimed at preventing religious extremism and terrorism in the troubled region.
in 20 pages report Issued in August 2022, Obokata said that Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang were being used as forced labor in sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing under two state-imposed systems where minorities are detained and subjected. to labor practices or where surplus rural workers .
Transfer of rural workers
Similar measures exist in neighboring Tibet, where a vast labor transfer program has shifted Tibetan farmers, herdsmen and other rural workers into low-skilled and low-paid jobs, according to the report.
The Chinese government restricts Tibetans’ political activities and the peaceful expression of their cultural and religious identity as Buddhists.
Tibetans frequently complain of discrimination and human rights abuses by the Chinese authorities and policies they say are aimed at erasing their national and cultural identity.
“Tibetans are being pushed away from sustainable livelihoods where they have traditionally had a comparative advantage, such as wool and dairy production, and into low-paid and low-skilled jobs in manufacturing and construction,” the experts from the UN in the press release. .
They went on to say that Tibetans are transferred directly from training centers to new workplaces, though it is unclear if they have consented to the jobs. But the lack of supervision makes it impossible to determine whether the working conditions constitute forced labor, experts said.
Obokata and the others expressed concern that the vocational training programs were “designed to promote a non-plural, monoracial and mono-ethnic nation, in violation of the prohibition of racial discrimination under international human rights law.”
They asked China to provide details on the measures in place for Tibetans to opt out of vocational training and job transfer programs, monitor the working conditions of Tibetans in their new places of employment and ensure respect for religious identity, Tibetan linguistic and cultural .
The UN experts also sent a letter to the Chinese government expressing concern for the mostly Muslim Uyghur minority in Xinjiang.
“We are seeing similar patterns in terms of treatment, which is why we are expressing our concern at this time for the Tibetan people,” Obokata said.
Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
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