RESOLUTION OF THE SECOND WORLD PARLIAMENTARIANS CONVENTION ON TIBET

Vilnius, Lithuania, May 26-28, 1995

The Members of Parliament and their representatives who gathered in Vilnius on behalf of their respective parliamentary groups of over one thousand Parliamentarians world-wide to discuss the threat of the survival of Tibet and the Tibetan people,

Reaffirming their support for the New Delhi Statement on Tibetan Freedom and the Action Plan for Tibet adopted at the first Parliamentrians Convention on Tibet in New Delhi held on March 18 to 20, 1994;

Reaffirming the illegality of the Peoples of China's (PRC) invasion and occupation of Tibet, which was an independent state in 1949, when the Peoples Liberation Army first entered Tibet;

Recognising that under international law, Tibet is today an independent state under illegal occupation and that the PRC has no legal title to soveregnity over Tibet;

Condemning as a serious violation of international law the large scale population transfer of Chinese into Tibet, implemented by various methods, including the replacement of responsible Tibetan administrators by Chinese officials at different levels of government; and the recent decision by the Chinese autohorities requiring that all Chinese military personnel serving in Tibet must retire and settle there or forfeit their pension rights;

Concerned about the destruction of the natural environment on the Tibetan plateu, which has ramifications not only for Tibet itself but also for the region and the world;

Condemning the discrimination practised by the Chinese authorities with respect to education by lack of adequate educational facilities for Tibetan children, disrimination against Tibetans wanting to study their own language and culture, and forceful recall of Tibetan children studying outside Tibet and China;

Condemning other gross and syustematic violations of human rights in Tibet, including the arbitary arrest, detention and torture of Tibetans for political offences; the violation of rigfhts of women, including the practice of involuntary sterilisation and abortion; the prohibition of religious freedom; all of which, together with destruction of Tibet's rich culture and the population transfer, threaten the continued existence of the Tibetan people and therefore amounts of genocide;

Reaffirming the inalienable rights of the Tibetan people to self-determination and independence;

Emphasising that violations of human rights, including the right to self-determination, and all other violations of international law are, by definiton, the legitimate concern of all members of international community and can never be regarded as belonging to the internal affairs of any state;

Therefore

Call on the PRC to stop immediately all policies and practices which violate the human rights and fundamental freedoms of Tibetans, including, in particular, population transfer and the use of all forms of violence against Tibetans;

Commend His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government in exile's continuing efforts to seek a peaceful solution to the question of Tibet;

Call on governments of other states to support by all effective means possible the efforts if the Tibetan people and their legitimate representatives, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government in exile, to restore the rights and freedoms of the Tibetan people through a peaceful exercise of the right to self-determination;

Propose that the mandate of the United Nations Decolonization Committee be expanded to include the issue of decolonisation of Tibet;

Resolve to initiative investigations, hearings and inquiries on the PRC's claim that Tibet is part of China, in every Parliament represented at the Convention and to persuade Menmbers of other Parliaments to do the same, as a prelude to according recognition of the Tibetan Government in exile;

Resolve to persuade respective governments to pressure the PRC Government to stop the policy and practice of population transfer;

Commit to undertake efforts to raise the question of Tibet at the coming session of the United Nations General Assembly and of the Comission on Human Rights;

Commit to undertake efforts to obtain observer status membership for the Tibetan Parliament at the international Parliamentary Union;

Resolve to send an international delegation of parliamentarians to visit Tibet, Beijing and Dharmsala to investigate and publicly report on the current situation; to meet with the Chinese Government, the Tibetan Government in exile; and to call on the United Nations Secretary General in order to urge and promote a prompt start to substantive negotiations, without pre-conditions, to seek a peaceful and comprehensive solution of the Sino-Tibetan conflict in accordance with the terms of this resolution;

Resolve to present or forward this resolution to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government in Exile; to the President and Government of the Peoples Republic of China; to the Secretary General of the United Nations; and to the governments and parliaments of all states represented at this Convention.

Vilnius, May 28, 1995