From: World Tibet Network News. Sunday, June 25, 1995

For more information, contact:

Kunzang Yuthok (206)781-0210 / 547-1015

Carole Samdup (514) 487-0665

Only Three Tibet NGOs Recommended for Accreditation to United Nations Women's Conference in Beijing. It has just been learned that only three Tibet non-governmental organizations out of nine that applied are among the over 800 NGOs recommended for accreditation for the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing this September. The final decision on accreditation will be taken up at the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) meeting which starts Monday, June 26 and ends July 28, 1995.

The three are Tibetan Rights Campaign (Seattle, USA), International Committee of Lawyers for Tibet (San Francisco, USA) and Tibetan Women's Organization (Geneva, Switzerland).

"Unless the free world speaks up now and insists that all Tibetan groups be admitted, even those that were recommended will never reach Beijing," said Ms. Kunzang Yuthok, Executive Director of the Tibetan Rights Campaign.

"Communist China is calling the tune right now, and the rest of the world is kowtowing to repressive tactics that make a mockery of everything the United Nations stands for," Yuthok said. "Every women's group should be able to go to the conference, not just those that China's male dictators deem politically correct."

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The six Tibet NGOs that have not been recommended are: Canada Tibet Committee (Canada), International Campaign for Tibet (USA), Norwegian Tibet Committee (Norway), Tibet Support Group-UK (England), Tibetan Women's Association (India) and Unrepresented Peoples and Nations Organization (Netherlands).

NGOs that have been recommended by the Secretariat are not guaranteed approval. Member states have the option to raise objections.

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