The Tibet Bureau - Geneva 21 July 1995

For Immediate Release

Geneva: The UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSCO) meeting in Geneva this morning took a consensus decision barring all Tibetan NGOs from the World Conference on Women in Beijing. The decision means that no Tibetan NGO will be accredited to the Women's Conference. This was taken on the recommendations from three "informal sessions" of concerned governments which debated the accreditation application of 19 NGOs, including three Tibetan NGOs. As far as the Tibetan NGOs were concerned, "it was a political decision," said one western diplomat who attended the "informal sessions".

The 19 NGOs were among 760 NGOs whose accreditation was recommended to the ECOSOC by the Beijing conference secretariat at the UN in New York. However, the 19 NGOs were "separated" from an ECOSOC decision on 29 June which cleared the accreditation for 741 NGOs because certain governments expressed "concerns and reservations" on their application. China's "concern and reservations" singled out the three Tibetan NGOs: International Committee of Lawyers for Tibet (USA), Tibet Rights Campaign (USA) and Tibetan Women's Organisation in Switzerland.

For the past few weeks, Tibetan NGOs have been appealing to the 54 Member States of the ECOSCO to refrain from taking decision which would set a bad precedent for future UN World Conferences. Mrs Namgyal Phala, the President of the Tibetan Women's Organisation in Switzerland wrote to the Member States cautioning that any "discriminatory and politically motivated action would put the moral legitimacy of the Beijing-conference in question."

The Chinese delegation to the ECOSOC mainly used "political" arguments at the "informal sessions" to convince why other governments should deny accreditation to the Tibetan NGOs. China categorised the three Tibetan NGOs as groups who "espoused the independent of Tibet". On the whole Chinese pressure succeeded in the denial of accreditation to eight NGOs based in India, USA, Canada, Norway, Switzerland and United Kingdom as far as the Beijing conference is concerned.

Tibetan Government in Exile is of the opinion that refusing Tibetan NGOs accreditation tot the Beijing conference is tantamount to denying Tibetan women their rights to participate. Over the past many year, due to Chinese pressure the United Nations has regularly denied accreditation to Tibetans or Tibet-related NGOs to the past UN World Conferences. These discriminatory decisions against the Tibetan people and its supporters must end if the UN really stand for justice and equality of all human beings.

Forwarded by: Tseten Samdup