Londond, November 13. According Tibet Information Network (TIN), "The United Nations has ruled that the Chinese Government violated the human rights of 51 political prisoners, 32 of them Tibetans, and has called for them to be released. The UN, which had been asked by human rights groups to consider the 51 sample cases, decided that the prisoners had been 'arbitrarily detained'. The finding has just been published by the UN's Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions, an expert body which finished its quarterly session last Friday in Geneva, exactly one year after the decision was communicated to China. Publication of the decision now emphasises the Working Group's dissatisfaction with China, which has failed either to release the prisoners or to change its detention practices. The detentions were 'in contravention of Articles 19 and 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights', according to the statement issued by the Working Group. 'The right of the persons concerned to freedom of opinion and expression ha

s not been respected', it decided. The Chinese Government was requested by the Working Group to 'take the necessary steps to remedy the situation to bring it into conformit with the provisions and principles incorporated in the Universal Declaration', a phrase which means that the prisoners should be released immediately. It also means that they are entitled to compensation from the Chinese authorities. The 32 Tibetan cases submitted to the UN include ten monks from Drepung monastery near Lhasa who received sentences averaging 15 years each in 1989 for publishing leaflets about democracy and human rights, including a Tibetan translation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Others include a doctor, a restaurant owner, an accountant, two teachers, a technician, a painter and ten other monks. The cases of an estimated 300 other political prisoners in Tibet have not yet been considered by the UN. The Working Group delayed publishing its decision for a year in the hope of getting the Chinese to co-operat

e. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions is a new body formed by the UN Commission on Human Rights three years ago. The Working Group is unique in that, alone amongst the UN's procedures for investigating specific types of human rights violation, it has quasi-judicial powers. This means that it can examine an allegation received from an individual and decide if the Government involved has committed an abuse or not. The other UN procedures merely report the allegations. The Working Group gives governments 90 days to reply to an allegation. It then accepts further submissions from the concerned individuals and non-governmental organisations before weighing both sides of the case and judging accordingly. Its findings could embarrass Beijing, which claims to respect basic human rights and has so far always evaded criticism by any of the UN's principal decision-making bodies. (EuroTibet News N·8)