Senator SYNON (12:45 PM) —I stand here today to speak on a matter which has long been of interest to the Senate, to those in the other place and to many of my fellow Australians—the matter of Tibet, human rights in that country and the rule of law. The Australian parliament has a long history of acknowledging allegations of human rights violations in Tibet. This parliament has called on China to respond constructively to discussions with Tibet's spiritual and temporal leader, the Dalai Lama, and to address the issue of allegations of human rights abuse in Tibet.

I stand here today in recognition that we live in a country in which our rights as individuals are recognised and respected. I stand in recognition that as Australians we have a duty to assist people elsewhere to receive similar recognition of their rights and dignity, and to assist people elsewhere in the exercise of their right to self-determination. For many years, I have watched the oppression of the Tibetan people and the suppression of their culture. I have watched as democracies around the world have passed and implemented significant initiatives in support of the people of Tibet. I am proud to publicly support that movement in championing the Tibetan people, their culture, their language and their identity.

One of the most influential bodies which has been involved in and concerned by developments in Tibet for nearly four decades is the much respected International Commission of Jurists. The commission is made up of 45 leading judges and lawyers from around the world. In 1959, the International Commission of Jurists published a report called The question of Tibet and the rule of law. This report examined Chinese policy in Tibet, violations of human rights in that country and the position of Tibet in international law. The report found that:

. . . almost all the rights which together allow the full and legitimate expression of human personality appear to be denied to the Tibetans . . . on the basis of the available evidence it would seem difficult to recall a case in which ruthless suppres sion of man's essential dignity has been more systematically and efficiently carried out.

In the following years, the ICJ published further reports detailing evidence relating to genocide in Tibet and finding that acts of genocide had been committed in Tibet in an attempt to destroy the Tibetans as a religious group. The ICJ also found widespread violations of numerous civil and political, as well as economic and social, rights.

The United Nations, like many individual countries, also expressed concern during those years about the continued ill-treatment of the Tibetan people. The UN called many times for China to ensure respect for the fundamental human rights of the Tibetan people and for their distinctive cultural and religious life. In 1961, the UN General Assembly called on China to cease `practices which deprive the Tibetan people of their fundamental human rights and freedoms including their right to self-determination'. This call was repeated again in 1965. Yet the situation of the Tibetan people deteriorated further.

During the Cultural Revolution in China, every aspect of Tibetan culture came under attack. By 1976, Tibet's cultural and religious heritage was decimated, as were almost all of its thousands of monasteries. Hundreds of thousands of Tibetans had been killed. More recently, the Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities of the UN Commission on Human Rights expressed concern at `the continuing reports of violations of fundamental human rights and freedoms which threaten the distinct cultural, religious and national identity of the Tibetan people'.

In response in 1991, the International Commission of Jurists decided to conduct an up-to-date study of the situation of the rule of law and human rights in Tibet. The report Tibet: Human rights and the rule of law, published last December, is a result of that study. It notes the intensification of repression in Tibet since 1996, focusing particularly on the re-education drive in the monasteries, arrests of leading religious figures and the ban on photographs of the Dalai Lama. It also examines increasing threats to aspects of Tibetan identity and culture through colonis ation, the erosion of the Tibetan language and the degradation of Tibet's environment.

The report describes the Tibetan people as a people under alien subjugation, entitled under international law to the right of self-determination. Many policies erode, or threaten to erode, the distinctive elements of Tibetan identity and culture. These are outlined in the report of the ICJ. They include the fact that systematic population transfer from China to Tibet has ensured that Chinese people now account for approximately one-third of the total population of all areas with Tibetan autonomous status. Tibetans have become a minority in their own land.

The report also noted the undermining of Tibet's cultural heritage through the destruction of over 6,000 Tibetan monasteries, the restriction of cultural activities and the blatant assimilation policy, as well as the erosion of the Tibetan language—an issue intricately bound with identity, communication and education. Chinese language dominates education—an issue to which I shall return—and it dominates commerce and administration. In so doing it marginalises Tibetan as a language and the Tibetans as a people. Finally, the report also noted the environmental degradation and the resource exploitation which have destroyed most of Tibet's wildlife and seen much of its forests cut, hills eroded and the threat of flooding magnified. As a direct consequence, the long-term viability of Tibetan civilisation is threatened.

Education—obviously a key factor in the propagation of a people's culture and identity—is also severely restricted. The United Nations Covenant on the Rights of the Child, of which China is a signatory, safeguards the right of a child to education, the development of the child's cultural identity, language and values, the minority rights of culture, religion and language, and the right not to be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment.

However, in direct contravention of this, some recent evidence suggests that many Tibetan children receive no education and the Tibetan language is being phased out of schooling and students are forbidden to worship the Dalai Lama, to visit a temple, to eat Tibetan food or to read material written in Tibetan. I note that there are many Australian school children in the gallery today. I ask how we would feel if they were forbidden to eat Australian food or to talk in English. Children are further promised money to report their parents if they talk about subjects relating to Tibetan culture, history or religion—obviously very divisive—and children often suffer brutal punishment in schools.

Not only will Tibet's unique and special culture die if its children are not taught about it but the current system also prevents Tibetan children attaining a sufficient standard of education to participate fully in their community. This also decreases their chances of employment. Tibet's very survival is threatened. These are merely the policies which are subsuming Tibetan culture and identity, not the abhorrent breaches of political and religious rights perpetrated in Tibet and which have been well documented for over nearly 40 years.

In 1948 Australia was one of the first members of the United Nations to vote for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Since that time it has been a party to several declarations and conventions which reinforce that declaration. One of the most important of these is the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This covenant stipulates that people have a right to, among other things: their own language and religion; participation in public affairs; freedom of expression and opinion; freedom from arbitrary arrest, detention or exile; freedom of association and assembly; a fair trial and equal treatment with others under the law; freedom from cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment; and life, liberty and the security of person.

These rights, which we as Australians recognise and take for granted, are denied to the Tibetan people by a totalitarian regime. In particular: those in detention, as documented by groups like the Australia Tibet Council and Amnesty International, are often subject to torture and ill treatment; the death penalty may be imposed without due process or fair trial; restrictions on freedom of speech are rife and re-education is even monitored by neigh bourhood committees; freedom of religion has been inhibited by the destruction of monasteries, subjugation of monastic orders and the severe curtailing of religious teaching; the forced sterilisation of thousands of Tibetan women, the forced abortions and the imposition of fines ensure that Tibetan families are restricted to having only one child; since 1949, 1.2 million Tibetans have been killed; and the Tibetan people are clearly unable to exercise their entitlement under international law to self-determination.

The history of human rights in Tibet is disgraceful. I stand here, as others have stood before me, to highlight the situation in Tibet and to call for the reaffirmation that human rights are both universal and indivisible. The Tibetan people are entitled to a constructive engagement on the issue of human rights in their country, a restoration of an atmosphere of trust and reconciliation between their leader in exile, the Dalai Lama, and the People's Republic of China, and the right of religious freedom and the release of all political and religious prisoners of conscience in Tibet. Together we must work towards a common goal—a goal that human rights abuses are eradicated around the world and that individual's rights are protected. The Tibetan people have suffered brutal treatment in their own country. Their human rights must be upheld.