AUGUST 7, 1995

Tibetan Women's Association - Dharamsala

The Fourth World Conference on Women which is scheduled to be held in Beijing, China from August 31 to September 14 is finally approaching. As you all are aware, the Tibetan Women's Association has been preparing for this meeting since the past two years. In ou r efforts to better coordinate this situation, we also have regional coordinators in Australia, Eur ope, Canada and the United States.

To date, there are about 80 Tibetan women and friends who have formally registered with the NGO Facilitating Committee in New York. These include about 10 people from Indi a, 50 participants from Switzerland, 2 from Australia, 3 from Canada, 3 from Norway, 1 from Netherlands, around 10 from United States.

To apply for a visa - the conditions include having a confirmation letter from both the NGO Facilitating Committee in New York and the Hotel Confirmation letter from the China Organising Committee in Beijing. Just recently, all the participants have been receiving their hotel confirmation letters.

As yet, nobody has recieved a visa - as none have applied. However, the possibilites of women living in Europe, North America and Australia have better chances of getting visas since all of them have proper passports and travel documents. Since Tibetan women living in India have only Identity Certificates, we may not be able to participate. We however, plan to apply for a visa from the Chinese Embassy. Due to the nature of our travel document, it see m highly unlikely that we may be asked to travel on the Chinese Overseas Passport - which we definitely not be accepting. In the event that we do not get our visas on our Identity Certificates (IC - the yellow travel document) we hope to follow up with a number of demonstrations/campaign/press conferences etc.

Given that both the NGO Forum and the UN Conference will be on for almost two weeks, we need to do something to draw the world's attention to our situation. We have proposed the following activities for some of the key days. They are:

- 30th August - This is the eve of the NGO Forum meeting. Since the next day will be the first day of the NGO meeting, all the media will be reporting on this event. If we cannot participate, it is essential that we express our exclusion - everyone should demonstrate/protest on this day.

- 3rd September - this is the eve of the official UN conference - since all of the Tibet related groups have been denied accreditation to attend this official conference, we certainly think we must express our concerns - especially since this whole event is under the auspices of the United Nations and China's political influence in denying accreditation to all the Tib et related groups - we request all Tibetan women and Tibetan organisations to organise a suitable event to protest the United Nations action - candle light vigil, peace walk, hunger strike. We should possibly protest in front of the United Nations or its associated institutions. - 8th September - this marks the last day of the NGO Forum meeting and all support groups and Tibet organisations protest - based on the outcomes of the NGO meeting.

We will continue to keep all of you posted as events develop and visas are eith er given or denied. We would very much appreciate your solidarity, support and continued cooperation at this very crucial period.

Please let us know if you have any additional comments or suggestions! Tashi Delek and our heartfelt gratitude to all of you.